‘Lincoln never dies’ - finding his resonance 150 years later

In the oak-paneled hush of the reading room overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue, Karen Needles mostly works alone — but always in good company.

Five mornings a week, Needles signs in at the National Archives, often wearing an Abraham Lincoln T-shirt, and her hand sets to work atop a Lincoln mouse pad. Some days, she stations an Honest Abe bobblehead beside her laptop, his bearded chin seemingly nodding approval.

Here, backed by bound volumes of Lincoln’s writings and three blocks from where, 150 years ago this week, he was felled by an assassin’s bullet, Needles is on a self-appointed mission: to bring the Great Emancipator to life.