Daily Herald: Looking for Lincoln

CHICAGO (WLS) -- His childhood obsession with Abraham Lincoln culminated in the Super 8mm stop-action film Christopher Oakley made of the president's assassination with his G.I. Joe as Lincoln and a Lone Ranger doll as John Wilkes Booth. Oakley's adult obsession with our 16th president led to a discovery that Smithsonian Magazine hailed as "the most provocative Abraham Lincoln photo find of the last 60 years." Challenging assumptions of Lincoln's tiny image on a damaged photo of the president's appearance at Gettysburg, Oakley identified and made a compelling case that Lincoln actually was pictured in another area of the photo. The difference clarifies scholars' understanding of Gettysburg, but it's just one of several Lincoln-related feats for which Oakley is likely to be known. Formerly a Disney animator, has nearly finished a groundbreaking animated film of Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address.

You can read the full story in the Daily Herald's edition from Sunday, April 12, 2015, or online at dailyherald.com.