Osborn H. (Osborn Hamiline) Oldroyd

Born in 1842 and living until 1930, Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd was an American author, Civil War veteran, and energetic collector whose name became closely tied to the remembrance of Abraham Lincoln. He wrote and compiled works about Lincoln and the Civil War, including material on Lincoln's campaigns, songs of the war years, and the story of Lincoln's assassination.

Oldroyd is especially known for building a major collection of Lincoln relics and documents. He displayed that collection first in Lincoln's Springfield home and later in the house where Lincoln died in Washington, helping turn historical memory into something visitors could see at close range.

His work sat at the crossroads of authorship, collecting, and public history. More than simply writing about Lincoln, he spent decades preserving artifacts and stories that fed the growing national reverence for Lincoln in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.