Thomas P. Lowry Explained

Thomas P. Lowry
Birth Name:Thomas Power Lowry
Birth Place:Northern California, U.S.
Occupation:Author, psychiatrist
Notable Works:The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell
Education:Stanford University (MD)
Spouse:Thea Snyder (divorced)
Beverly Lowry (since 1986)

Thomas Power Lowry (born 1932) is an American author and retired physician.A psychiatrist by training, he turned in the 1990s to writing historical non-fiction about the American Civil War.[1] His reputation was damaged in 2011 when he made – and subsequently recanted – a written confession that he had tampered with a document signed by President Abraham Lincoln held in the U.S. National Archives.[2] [3]

Early life and medical career

Lowry was born in Northern California, the son of a naval officer.[4] He received an M.D. from Stanford University in 1957,[5] later practicing as a psychiatrist and marriage counsellor. In the 1970s he and then-wife Thea Snyder Lowry (1932–2002) served on the staff of the Masters and Johnson Clinic in St. Louis as part of the research team investigating sexual dynamics and relationships.[6] [7] During this period Lowry published what he would later describe as "several very dull medical books."[8] Nonetheless, his 1976 work on the human clitoris was positively reviewed in the Journal of Sex Research.[9] He was later a clinical associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco.[10]

Later writing career

After retiring from a four-decade career in medicine, Lowry — assisted by a new wife, Beverly — shifted in the 1990s to writing non-fiction historical works. He has authored or co-authored more than 20 books in this field, the majority dealing with the American Civil War period. Much of the Lowrys' research was carried out at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C., where, over the course of a decade, the Lowrys compiled a large index of thousands of previously uncatalogued Civil War documents.[11] [12] Lowry's first and best-known book on this subject, The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell (1994), received a favorable review in The New York Times as "the first study of sexual behavior associated with the Civil War,"[13] and was praised in Esquire as "amusing and fascinating."[14] Two subsequent works on Civil War courts-martial, Tarnished Eagles (1998) and Tarnished Scalpels (2000; co-authored with Jack D. Welsh), were well-reviewed in Civil War Times and Kirkus Reviews, respectively.[15] [16] Lowry has occasionally published on other historic events, such as the Battle of Taranto and the sinking of the Titanic.[17] [18] His 2004 book on the Lewis and Clark Expedition earned him an award from the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.[19]

Lincoln document forgery controversy

In January 2011, agents of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) obtained a signed confession from Lowry that in 1998 he had smuggled a fountain pen into a NARA research room in Washington D.C., and used it to alter the date on a presidential pardon issued by Abraham Lincoln to a Union soldier who had been sentenced to death by court martial. A NARA press release announced that Lowry admitted to changing the handwritten year of the 1864 pardon so that Lincoln's signature appeared to be dated "April 14, 1865" – the same day Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theater. Lowry had cited the altered document in his 1999 book Don't Shoot That Boy! Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice. It was alleged that Lowry's motive was to gain publicity by claiming that he, as an independent researcher, had found what would have been the final official document signed by President Lincoln before his death.[20] [21]

Lowry subsequently recanted his confession, in which he detailed how he used a fountain pen containing fade-proof, pigment-based ink to alter the date of the pardon. Lowry now states that he signed the confession under duress after accepting a request to be interviewed by two NARA investigators at his home in Woodville, Virginia,[22] and that any document-tampering was carried out by an unknown party prior to Lowry citing the pardon.[23]

As the pertinent five-year statute of limitations on tampering with government property had expired, Lowry could not be criminally prosecuted. Nevertheless, his public reputation was severely damaged, and he received a lifetime ban from NARA's facilities.[24] In 2021, forensic analysis of the pardon established that the ink of the number "5" in the date is different from the ink used in the rest of the document, indicating that the date was indeed forged.[25] [26]

Lowry has continued to produce history books, and maintains his innocence through his personal website.

Published books

Medical works

Historical works

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Woodward. Calvin. Author Finds Strange Bed Fellows in a Peek Beneath Civil War Sheets. Los Angeles Times. 8 January 1995. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20170319121644/http://articles.latimes.com/1995-01-08/news/mn-17501_1_civil-war. 19 March 2017.
  2. News: Roberts. Sam. Stroke of Pen Altered Date, and a Tale of Lincoln, Too. The New York Times. 24 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20151126213628/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/us/25lincoln.html. 26 November 2015.
  3. News: Swaine, Jon. Last pardon of Abraham Lincoln was 'forgery'. The Telegraph. 25 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20170318235516/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8281290/Last-pardon-of-Abraham-Lincoln-was-forgery.html. 18 March 2017. live. en.
  4. Book: Lowry. Thomas P.. Holzer. Harold. Symonds. Craig L.. Williams. Frank J.. Harold Holzer. Craig Symonds. Frank J. Williams. The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory. 2010. Fordham University Press. New York. 978-0-8232-3226-0. 95. https://books.google.com/books?id=8EoxJvuXnDUC&q=skipper&pg=PA95. en. Not Everybody Mourned Lincoln's Death.
  5. Class Notes. Stanford Medicine Magazine. Summer 2005. 22. 2. https://web.archive.org/web/20160401022510/http://sm.stanford.edu/archive/stanmed/2005summer/md-classnotes.html. 1 April 2016.
  6. News: Lisetor. Joan. Lack of Communication - The Real Hangup. Daily Independent Journal. 31 July 1974. San Rafael, California. 18. Newspapers.com.
  7. Web site: In Memoriam: Thea Snyder Lowry. Reed Magazine. Reed College. 17 February 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20150908094746/http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/may2002/thea-snyder-lowry-1953.html. 8 September 2015. May 2002.
  8. Web site: About Us. The Index Project, Inc.. 17 February 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20130826165212/http://www.theindexproject.com/about-us.html. 26 August 2013.
  9. Brecher. Edward M.. Edward M. Brecher. Reviews and abstracts. Journal of Sex Research. 1977. 13. 2. 136–137. 10.1080/00224497709550969.
  10. Loge. Ronald V.. Book Review of Venereal Disease and the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Thomas P. Lowry. Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 2006. 16. 2. 208–209.
  11. News: Softer Side of Lincoln Comes To Light in a Trove of Papers. https://web.archive.org/web/20160308103559/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/15/us/softer-side-of-lincoln-comes-to-light-in-a-trove-of-papers.html. 8 March 2016. The New York Times. 15 March 1998.
  12. News: Rein. Lisa. Buske. Jennifer. Historian accused of altering Lincoln document at National Archives. The Washington Post. 25 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20160507050927/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/24/AR2011012404713_pf.html. 7 May 2016.
  13. News: Robertson. James I. Jr.. James I. Robertson, Jr.. Battlefield Confidential. The New York Times. 12 June 1994. BR-24.
  14. Web site: Bateman. Robert. What We Can Learn From Gettysburg Reenactors. Esquire. https://archive.today/20170218005419/http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a23274/gettysburg-reenactment-learning-from-reenactors-062713/. 18 February 2017. en. 27 June 2013.
  15. Web site: Hennessy. John. Book Review: Tarnished Eagles. Civil War Times. HistoryNet. https://web.archive.org/web/20160818215427/http://www.historynet.com/book-review-tarnished-eagles-the-courts-martial-of-fifty-union-colonels-and-lieutenant-colonels-thomas-p-lowry-cwt.htm. 18 August 2016. 12 August 2001.
  16. Web site: Tarnished Scalpels. Kirkus Reviews. en-us. 1 June 2000.
  17. Web site: Book Review: The Attack on Taranto: Blueprint for Pearl Harbor. Publishers Weekly. https://web.archive.org/web/20170225010438/http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8117-1726-7. 25 February 2017. en. 31 July 2000.
  18. Web site: Nuevo estudio señala que el Titanic se hundió por problemas médicos del capitán. La Tercera. https://web.archive.org/web/20170225021504/http://www.latercera.com/noticia/nuevo-estudio-senala-que-el-titanic-se-hundio-por-problemas-medicos-del-capitan/. 25 February 2017. Spanish. 8 November 2012.
  19. Web site: University of Nebraska Press books earn honors. The Scarlet. University of Nebraska–Lincoln. https://web.archive.org/web/20170304093103/http://scarlet.unl.edu/scarlet/archive/2007/02/22/story20.html. 4 March 2017. 22 February 2007.
  20. Web site: National Archives Discovers Date Change on Lincoln Record. National Archives. en. 24 January 2011.
  21. News: Rein. Lisa. Altered Lincoln pardon at National Archives to be taken out of circulation. The Washington Post. 26 January 2011.
  22. News: Barakat. Matthew. Va. historian denies tampering with Lincoln pardon. Boston.com. 25 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20170220031817/http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/01/25/va_historian_denies_tampering_with_lincoln_pardon/. 20 February 2017. en.
  23. Web site: Lowry . Thomas . Serpent's Tooth . https://web.archive.org/web/20211227080423/https://tomlowry.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/hello-world/ . 27 December 2021 . 8 February 2011.
  24. News: Roberts. Sam. Kindnesses Are Revealed From Day Lincoln Died. The New York Times. 28 January 2011. https://archive.today/20170225021019/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/us/29lincoln.html. 25 February 2017.
  25. Web site: Examination of date tampering on Abraham Lincoln's pardon of Patrick Murphy, RG 153 entry 15, case MM761 (ARC identifier: 1839980). 2021-12-26. 2021. Forensic Science International: Synergy. Jennifer. Hermann. Yoonjoo. Strumfels. Kathy. Ludwig.
  26. Web site: Ouellette . Jennifer . X-ray analysis confirms forged date on Lincoln pardon of Civil War soldier . . 26 December 2021.
  27. Maas. James W.. Hyperventilation and Hysteria. Archives of General Psychiatry. August 1968. 19. 2. 245–246. 10.1001/archpsyc.1968.01740080117022.
  28. Web site: Ells. Mark D. Van. Review of Lowry, Thomas P., The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War. H-Net Reviews. Humanities and Social Sciences Online. https://web.archive.org/web/20170218025006/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=225. 18 February 2017. en. December 1995.
  29. Web site: Book Review - Don't Shoot That Boy! Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice, by Thomas P. Lowry, M.D.. Smithsonian Civil War Studies. https://web.archive.org/web/20160707224305/http://civilwarstudies.org/articles/Vol_2/tom-lowry.shtm. 7 July 2016.
  30. Web site: Lankford. Ronald D. Jr.. Review of Swamp Doctor. Foreword Reviews. en. 15 June 2000.
  31. Web site: Rafuse. Ethan. Review of Lowry, Thomas P., Confederate Heroines: 120 Southern Women Convicted by Union Military Justice. H-Net. Humanities & Social Sciences Online. https://web.archive.org/web/20170218025914/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12617. 18 February 2017. en. December 2006.
  32. Brumback. Roger A.. Book Review: Bad Doctors. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. January 2012. 17. 1. 76. 10.1177/2156587211421611. 58316916.
  33. Web site: Sean Vanatta. Lowry: Drinking Patterns in the Civil War (2011). The Civil War Monitor. https://web.archive.org/web/20160824064924/http://civilwarmonitor.com/blogs/lowry-drinking-patterns-in-the-civil-war-2011. 24 August 2016. 11 April 2012.
  34. Web site: Guttman. Jon. Book Review: Galvanized Virginians in the Indian Wars. Wild West Magazine. HistoryNet. https://web.archive.org/web/20160804021042/http://www.historynet.com/book-review-galvanized-virginians-in-the-indian-wars.htm. 4 August 2016. 24 March 2016.