Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an American poet, novelist, folk singer and author of a major biography of Abraham Lincoln.

James Alan Jenkins (1903-1971) was a member of the Amherst College Class of 1924. He was pastor of the First Congregational Church, Elkhart, Indiana (1936); Galesburg (Illinois) Congregational Church (1943-1953); and First Congregational Church of Royal Oak, Michigan (1953-1971). He formed a friendship with Carl Sandburg, wrote on Sandburg and served on the board of directors of the Carl Sandburg Association. Sandburg and Jenkins were mutual friends of Thomas Irwin Starr, another Lincoln biographer and collector of Lincolniana.