The Lincoln Boys in 1854

The Springfield "urban" environment that shaped the childhood of the Lincoln boys was a far cry from the "backwoods wilderness" their father knew as a child. "Pay schools" and academies, railroad trains and fancy carriages, circuses and Sunday schools, hardware ...

Lincoln's Springfield

Twenty-eight-year-old Abraham Lincoln settled here in 1837. He was unmarried, unlearned, unrefined, with "no wealthy or popular relations to recommend me." On the day before his fifty-second birthday, Lincoln left here a profoundly changed man; a husband and father, financially ...

Lincoln's Horse

When Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865,joyous citizens decorated Lincoln's horse, Old Bob, with flags and led him triumphantly through the streets of Springfield. A ...

Mary Lincoln's Family

These four Todd sisters each married a Springfield man and established households within a few blocks of each other, Elizabeth was the oldest and became Mary's surrogate mother." Frances lived closest to Mary (across the street where the Grace Lutheran ...

The Children's Lincoln

Neighbor girl Josie Remann (left)was a favorite of Lincoln's. Once, on finding her in tears in front of her house, Lincoln ran all the way to the train station with her trunk on his shoulders because a carriage driver failed ...

Danville's Lincoln

[Left Section]

Danville was a destination for Abraham Lincoln for nearly twenty years. He first came to the village of a few hundred residents when he was a thirty-two-year-old attorney in 1841.

Elizabeth Harmon described the early appearance of the young limb ...

What Did Abraham Lincoln Eat?

Today many people refer to gardening as a hobby, but in the mid-19th Century many families depended on a kitchen garden to enrich their diets with seasonal foods such as fruits, vegetables and herbs. This recreated 19th Century kitchen garden ...

The New Salem Lincoln League

The New Salem Lincoln League

Dedicates this Memorial in Honor of

William Randolph Hearst

Who in 1906 purchased the site of New Salem

for the Old Salem Chautauqua Association.

In 1918, with the consent of Mr. Hearst,

this tract was transferred to the State of Illinois

thereby ...

The Underground Railroad in Lincoln's Neighborhood

The Underground Railroad refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage. Acts of self-emancipation made runaways "fugitives" according to the laws of the time. While most began and completed their journeys unassisted, each ...

Lincoln In Petersburg

Presidential Visit to Centre Hill

At noon on April 7, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and his party left City Point for Petersburg in a special train on the newly repaired City Point Railroad, arriving in the city half an hour later. ...