Abraham Lincoln

Birthplace

 

Birthplace: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site - Birthplace Unit, Sinking Spring Farm, 2995 Lincoln Farm Road, Hodgenville, KY

Visited: 9/28/97

Log Excerpt: "Out early to Abraham Lincoln’s Birthplace NHS, arriving a little after 8:00. Here is the birthplace farm of Lincoln, where he lived to about 2. There is a marble building on a hill containing a restored, rebuilt log cabin which probably contains some logs from the original. Saw the spring that watered the farm and the site of the boundary oak. Took a nice walk through the woods."

Home

 

Home: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHS - Lincoln's Boyhood Home Unit, Knob Creek, Hodgenville, KY

Visited: 4/23/21

Log Excerpt: The very low expectations we had for this stop proved true - the small park with two buildings (tavern and log cabin) was under renovation and all we could do was take poor photos from a fence. Knob Creek Farm was the childhood homestead of the future President, who said it was his "earliest recollection". The log cabin was that of Austin Gollaher; he had taken down the original Lincoln cabin, and his was representative of what theirs would have looked like."

Home

 

Home: Indiana Highway 162, Lincoln City, IN (Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial)

Visited: 8/4/94

Log Excerpt: "Drove a ways to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial [NHL]. Very nice place. Looked around the museum building - a lot of background on Lincoln, his father, mother and stepmother. Walked a short ways to Nancy Hanks Lincoln's grave (Lincoln's mother), then on to where the foundation and hearth of Lincoln's boyhood cabin was preserved by bronzing. Continued to a great reconstruction of the Lincoln farm with the barns and animals, wood chopping area, rope making and a cabin fully outfitted including people in period dress. Walked back to the parking lot via a trail with 12 stones pertaining to Lincoln. Some were good, e.g. the rock he stood on when he delivered the Emancipation Proclamation, others were a stretch, like the stone from his father's store in Illinois."

Home

 

Home: 426 South Seventh Street, Springfield, IL (Lincoln Home National Historic Site)

Visited: 7/28/06

Log Excerpt: "Headed into town and parked at the Lincoln Home NHS at opening; got ticket for first tour 15 minutes later. Already hot and humid! Nice talk by Ranger on the grounds of the 2X2 block area with original homes and look of how it was when Lincoln lived here. On into the house where Lincoln lived 17 years before heading to D.C. as President. Saw the original desk where he wrote the “house divided” speech among others and nicely restored rooms with good talk."

Museum/Library

 

Museum/Library: 212 North Sixth Street, Springfield, IL

Visited: 10/16/21

Log Excerpt: "Continuing into downtown we parked near the Abraham Lincoln Museum (and adjacent Library) and got museum tickets around 3:15 (last tickets sold at 4:00). The museum has a large central atrium surrounded by wedges of exhibits. There are some very lifelike “wax” figures here and there, including the Lincoln family to greet you in the middle of the atrium. We saw a log cabin just like we visited earlier in the year for Lincoln’s boyhood, and a room in the White House with dresses from Mary Lincoln. We saw a short but excellent presentation about historical artifacts in the museum, with a live performer that interacted with ghostly images, and finally somehow fading into a ghost himself. Feeling a little underwhelmed with the museum, for which we pictured more, we went back to the cabin to check out the inside. Here we realized that we hadn’t seen the bulk of the exhibits! The cabin had an extremely detailed vignette of Abe’s early life, and we passed from there to other life-sized vignettes with the same “wax” figures showing Lincoln’s life. We came out of there near the White House, and it turned out we continued the life tour there, past the dress exhibit. There were excellent multi-media presentations on the war, and the decisions surrounding the Emancipation Proclamation, ending in a vignette in Ford’s Theatre. The whole thing was very well done, and it restored our feeling about the Museum!

Gravesite

 

Gravesite: Oak Ridge Cemetery, 1441 Monument Avenue, Springfield, IL

Visited: 7/28/06

Log Excerpt: "... drove a short way to Oak Ridge Cemetery and Lincoln’s Tomb State Historic Site. Large memorial building with obelisk; inside saw the headstone (grave deep beneath) and tomb of Mary Lincoln and two children."