Lincoln Museum, Springfield, Il.

Lincoln as a boy

We arrived in Springfield, Illinois last night about 4 PM. Besides being the capital of Illinois, it has all things Lincoln. Here Lincoln had his law practice and served as a state legislator. Rather than visit a few of the historic sites, we decided to visit the Lincoln Museum and Library. This is a relatively new facility designed to provide an entertaining summary of Lincoln’s life and legacy. It almost felt like a Disney creation, designed to keep children interested in the subject. There were many scenes of his life set up with life-size figures as well as three multimedia presentations. The first section started with his growing up in a log cabin, learning to read, becoming a lawyer, falling in love with Mary Todd, having 4 sons (3 of whom died before he did), running for office numerous times, eventually becoming a congressman, but failing at his senate bid against Steven Douglas. The first movie was on the ‘eyes of Lincoln’ what he saw, what emotions he went through in his life, especially around the issue of slavery. One of the more interesting aspects was how quickly his face aged in his 4+ years as president. The second section focused on the White House years. A fun fake TV program with Tim Russert covered the platforms of the 4 candidates for President in 1860. (Lincoln won in the electoral college with about 40% of the popular vote.)  One of the most interesting aspects was two full walls of political cartoons of his time – most of them pretty wicked on various topics including how his election caused the split-up of the Union, and the dangers of the emancipation act. It was interesting to find out that more people saw Lincoln’s casket after his assassination on the train ride back to Springfield than had seen him as a Presidential candidate.

The Lincoln Family

We traveled on to just outside Dayton, Ohio for our camp spot for the night.