Otto Eisenschiml (1880-1963), was born June 16, 1880, in Vienna, Austria. Eisenschiml's father, Alexander, was a naturalized American citizen who had been a Union officer during the American Civil War. The elder Eisenschiml returned to Vienna where his some was born in 1880.

Otto Eisenschiml was educated in Vienna and when he graduated college in 1901 he left Europe for a position in the United States. He worked as a chemist for the Carnegie Steel Company and the American Linseed Company; in 1912 he founded his own company, the Scientific Oil Compounding Company, in Chicago. Eisenschiml served as president of the company, then later as the chairman of the board. He held the latter position until he died on December 7, 1963, at the age of eighty-three.

Eisenschiml researched the American Civil War as a hobby; he was particularly interested in the circumstances surrounding Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He theorized that Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, was directly involved in the assassination conspiracy, a position that was controversial among other scholars. He received an honorary degree from Lincoln Memorial University (Tennessee) and a diploma from Lincoln College (Illinois) in 1960.

[Source: "Otto Eisenschiml Papers, 1936-1963," Chronicling Illinois, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (ALPL) accessed April 25, 2013, http://alplm-cdi.com/chroniclingillinois/items/show/199.]