William H. Townsend, Lexington attorney and one of a small group of Abraham Lincoln experts present when the private papers of the Civil War president were opened on July 25, 1947, examined in his office here, items from his collection of Lincoln memorabilia. Townsend reported that he did not believe the newly opened collection would produce any startling new information about the Great Emancipator. Robert Todd Lincoln, President Lincoln’s only surviving son, for some reason, in the latter years of his life decreed his father’s papers be impounded until 21 years after his, Robert Lincoln’s death. Herald-Leader Archive Photo