Side Quest: Springfield, Illinois
Abraham Lincoln's home town! And mine!
I like doing some side quests on road trips. You don’t want to be too focused on just your road trip. It’s good to have some time to dash around and do other fun things! So I headed down to Springfield to check in with family, and was able to have some Abraham Lincoln fun. (To be fair: growing up in Springfield means you spend every school trip and adventure going to SOMETHING Lincoln! So I’ve been to everything, many times; but taking a few years between visits means I get to see some new things each time I go around the circuit.)
This is not technically an Abraham Lincoln building, but like so many things here (and across Illinois: the Land of Lincoln) it’s named for him. And this was a very formative building for me. I loooooved when we visited this building. So much so that by the time I got to high school, and was an extremely bored student, I would occasionally skip school and ride the bus downtown. I’d spend the day hanging around the library, reading books and exploring all kinds of different topics, and going to McDonalds for lunch. Heaven!
(Looking back, I’m actually kind of surprised that worked. I don’t think libraries would let unattended clearly-school-aged-person float around all day anymore. But I was well behaved, and clearly reading books all day; so either they didn’t care or just wanted to let me have fun. And I definitely did have fun!)
I was always annoyed by people who would coo over me “oh, you like to read books; you should be a librarian!” Ugh. Looking at these people, it looked really boring. Cut to many decades later, and I love being a librarian and working in libraries and my patrons!!!! Sometimes I guess it’s best to not overthink things. :)
Okay, back to Lincoln! My brother and I were going to visit his home; but we just missed the tour. (Sigh. I’m always frustrated by fussy rules; we could have grabbed tickets and run over to join them before they got to the house. Oh well.)
That really nice tan house in the far left picture is Lincoln’s house! It really is lovely, and so much preservation work has been done to keep it looking that way.
From the National Park Service website: “Can’t make it to our site or don’t have time to take a guided tour? Through a collaboration with Google Arts and Culture, it is now possible to take a virtual tour through the Lincoln Home. "Videos of a tour through the Lincoln Home are also available on the Lincoln Home National Historic Site YouTube account.
So, instead we walked around the area and went to an assortment of other houses. This is one thing that has developed over the years, and I think it’s great! The house is interesting, always. And then the historic preservation people have worked to bring up the couple of blocks around the house, so they are also showing interesting history. It really adds to the experience of being there!
Several years ago, my brother worked for a local archologist who did work on assorted urban things - including digging up the area around here. It was interesting to hear a little more about how the area changed from that perspective. And the signs and artifacts and maps provided across the neighborhood really helped to bring everything to life!
The next day, my brother and sister in law went to Lincoln’s tomb. I have spent MANY class trips and summer day camp trips visiting this, but it’s always interesting and always a solemn affair. It’s located in a huge cemetery; so if you enjoy wandering around cemeteries (as I do), there is a lot to see.
As seems to be traditional with all of these kinds of sculptures, it’s supposed to be good luck to rub his nose. (I’m kind of surprised each time I’m now tall enough to do this; because I remember being too short, and short enough that I had to stretch up!)
It’s not huge, and definitely not ostentatious - which seems to be the right way to go for Lincoln. It’s just a really nice place; and feels as restful and peaceful as would be possible for a monument to such a person.
I lived in Cleveland for a while, across the street from the cemetery where President Garfield is buried. It’s a lovely place to walk; I suggest a visit. When I went there, the women giving the tour asked where I was from, and when I said Springfield, her jaw dropped and she very reverently said “President Lincoln!” It’s the only time someone has been that impressed, and I felt very cool.
This is the resting area, of Lincoln, and also of his three children who died in childhood and his wife, Mary. Robert, his oldest son, became a rich guy working for Pullman trains. He bought a really beautiful house in Vermont (I’ve been there; it’s lovely!), and is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Then we went to New Salem. You can walk around and look at all kinds of restored log buildings. There isn’t much information about most of them on site; so I wish I had pulled up the map on the website! There is information there about everything. You might want to check it before you go.
From their website: “Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, about 2 miles South of Petersburg and about 20 miles Northwest of Springfield, is a reconstruction of the village where Abraham Lincoln spent his early adulthood. The six years Lincoln spent in New Salem formed a turning point in his career. Although he never owned a home here, Lincoln was engaged in a variety of activities while he was at New Salem. He clerked in a store, split rails, enlisted in the Black Hawk War, served as postmaster and deputy surveyor, failed in business, and was elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 1834 and 1836 after an unsuccessful try in 1832.”
Then my sister in law and I went to the Lincoln Presidential Museum. This is definitely fancy and a ton of care and time and money has gone into making it interesting. You really (REALLY) need to go to the movie Ghosts of the Library!
The pictures, starting from the top left in this group and moving right, are:
the outside of the building
when you enter, there is a big faux front of the White House, with mannequins of the family. On the porch to the right, as you look at it, are Sojourner Truth and Fredrick Douglass.
Lincoln’s cabinet, discussing the Emancipation Proclamation (He added to his difficulties by including political opponents to his cabinet. Good in theory - only idiots want yes-men hanging around; in practice, it seemed to mean he had a bunch of people who hated him right at hand.)
Moving to the second row of photos:
You can’t get a full picture of this in a still image, but when you walk in this room Lincoln is there, standing at his table and clearly thinking. And when you are there, an assortment of shadows and images float around, while you hear different people yelling all kinds of contradictory suggestions at him.
Being the President, if you are doing it well, sucks. Obama once talked about how all the easy and good decisions were made long before they made their way to him. He was left with only hard, bad ones.
There is another image of Lincoln sitting in a chair, reading telegrams, while ghostly numbers of dead and wounded keep floating out of them. War is a terrible thing, and even if it’s absolutely necessary - it’s terrible. Lincoln seems to have understood this in a way that I don’t think our modern presidents really do.
And, sorry, the final image is cut off - but the war is thankfully, finally over. Lincoln and Mary are in a box at Ford’s Theater, and John Wilkes Booth is sneaking up on them. You just want to run up and yell “Watch out!” or something. Sigh. Idiots with guns.
Before this, you walk through a room filled with headlines and newspaper articles all screaming about what a terrible president and a terrible person Lincoln is. It’s just a reminder: it’s so much easier to tear things down than to build. And it’s so much easier to whine and complain than it is to do something to make life better for others.
Also: it’s not just in our time that whiny man-babies use guns to make themselves feel better. Get yourself some therapy instead.
And then this is a recreation of Lincoln’s coffin, lying in state in the US Capitol rotunda. The Lincoln Catafalque: “A platform originally constructed in 1865 to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln while the president's body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
“Since 1865, the Lincoln catafalque has been used for most of the lying in state services in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. In the case of the Unknowns of World War II and the Korean War, an additional catafalque was built with the coffin of each at some point resting on the Lincoln catafalque.
The Lincoln catafalque has not been used for most of those lying in honor, but in 2021 U.S. Capitol Police Officer William Evans became the first person to lay in honor on the Lincoln catafalque.”
And thus concludes our side quest into the life of Abraham Lincoln! He led a big life, and did a lot of big things, some good and some not. If you are in the area, definitely stop by Springfield and admire all the Lincoln locations - there are more than I visited here!
One of the main things I take away here is that life is pretty good right now. Sure, not perfect; but we’re doing so much better. Stop listening to screaming headlines that say everything is terrible - it’s not! This is the best, safest, and wealthiest time to be a human. Enjoy that! And work to keep making it better!
And after all of this: don’t vote for some pathological narcissist who only wants to job to punish everyone in the world. Actually being a President is hard work, requiring sacrifice and talent. It matters who is there. And today, you may not love one choice - but the other choice is an absolute lunatic disaster.
From David Sedaris (about another election, but much more apt now): “To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?”
Lincoln seemed to have tried to do the right thing. It didn’t always work out; but maybe today - do the right thing. Do what you can to make a small different that improves your small piece of the world. It all adds up! Thinking about the best good for everyone is what makes a difference in the world.
And obviously: visit a library! We’re wonderful!!!