Lincoln's Dentist

Americans had poor oral hygiene in Lincoln's era.

Rotten teeth and foul breath were common (halitosis was not yet a social evil). Calomel frequently prescribed by doctors for fevers caused many people to have loose teeth. Dentistry was plagued by ignorance ...

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 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 ...

Mary Lincoln's Circle of Friends

Mary Lincoln formed lasting friendships with women in her neighborhood, including Julia Sprigg and Hanna Shearer, and exchanged a lively correspondence with many out-of-town relatives and friends.Julia Sprigg lived in the house behind you and was a widow with children. ...

Lincoln's Home Becomes a Shrine

Lincoln understood the importance of making his image available for the presidential campaign. Springfield photographer Preston Butler captured several likenesses of Lincoln during the 1860 election.Lower Left

Ambrotype of Abraham Lincoln, 1860 by Preston Butler

The portrait painter who commissioned this ...

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing ...

Soldiers' Reaction to Lincoln's Emancipation

Whether a soldier was Union or Confederate in his loyalties during the Civil War, there was not a unified reaction to Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary or official Emancipation Proclamation. The individual reaction varied on either side of this struggle, both north ...

Lincoln's Stop in Zionsville, Indiana

Abraham Lincoln enroute to Washington as President Elect on February ll, 1861 addressed the Citizens of Zionsville at the Railroad Depot which stood on this site.

Marker can be reached from the intersection of South First Street and West Oak Street, ...