Donna D. McCreary, a writer, lecturer, and performer, wrote Lincoln’s Table: Victorian Recipes from Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois to the White House and an essay in Frank J. Williams and Michael Burkhimer’s edited collection, The Mary Lincoln Enigma (SIU Press, 2012). She is the author of Mary Lincoln Demystified: Frequently Asked Questions about Abraham’s Wife (SIU Press, 2022) which was awarded a 2023 Illinois State Historical Society Superior Achievement Award in “Books, Scholarly.” Under her own imprint, Lincoln Presentations, she published Fashionable First Lady: The Victorian Wardrobe of Mary Lincoln, The Kentucky Todds in Lexington Cemetery, and an expanded edition of her recipe book, Lincoln’s Table: A President’s Culinary Journey from Cabin to Cosmopolitan. From 1992 to 2012, she portrayed Mary Lincoln as part of Indiana’s History Alive program and for many other organizations. McCreary was the recipient of several awards for her stage presentations include the Lincoln Legend Award from the Association of Lincoln Presenters.
She is a co-founder of Mary Lincoln’s Coterie, an organization dedicated to the study of Mary and her family.
Currently, McCreary lectures at Lincoln sites, museums, and libraries throughout the Midwest and is available throughout the country via Zoom presentations.
Donna McCreary, Author and Historian 