Library visitors of all ages are invited to experience Abraham Lincoln and Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 28, at Kendall Young Library, 1201 Willson Ave., Webster City.

The event begins at 6 p.m.

Attendees will hear a first-hand account from President Abraham Lincoln himself about how the national, annual observance of the Thanksgiving holiday came to be established in the fall of 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. Mr. Lincoln tells how the influential writer and editor Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” tirelessly advocated for the establishment of such a day.

He will read his 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation — which would be the first of an unending series of such presidential proclamations which has continued to this day — and explains its words in the context of the Civil War and the nation’s history up to that point, according to a media release from the library. He will also share a little bit about his own personal story. This program intends to serve as a reminder that despite whatever difficulties we might be experiencing as a nation or as individuals, we can still find reasons for which to be thankful.