Abraham Lincoln ~ February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865

16th President 1861 - 1865

Abraham Lincoln sites visited: 

Birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky

Boyhood home, Knob Creek Farm, Hodgenville, Kentucky

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City IN

Kentucky Panel (1809-1816)

Indiana Panel (1816-1830)

Illinois Panel (1830-1861)

Washington D.C. Panel (1861-1865)

And Now He Belongs to the Ages Panel

There's a small exhibit inside the building.

The cabin site

We walked the Trail of Twelve Stones.

And lastly we visited the space in which Abe's mother, Nancy, is buried.

Westport, Illinois has a monument celebrating Lincoln crossing into Illinois from Indiana in 1830.

Dixon, Illinois claims the honor of having the only statue of Lincoln in uniform. It commemorates his 1832 service in the Black Hawk war.

But there's another statue that honors Lincoln's service in the Black Hawk War, located in Pearl City, Illinois. It stands in the same park as the Black Hawk Historic Monument.

This is a Thomas Lincoln Farm sign we came across near Lerna, Illinois.

The last place Thomas and Sarah lived was the Goosenest Farm in Lerna.

Abe visited but never lived there. The graves of Thomas and Sarah Lincoln are located nearby.

Abe said goodbye for the last time to his step-mother, Sarah, in this house in Lerna in 1861.

Council Bluffs, Iowa, erected this Lincoln Monument marking the spot where Lincoln stood in 1859 and viewed the valley of the Missouri River. This city was later selected as the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad.

You can find the monument on Lafayette Avenue just west of Fairview Cemetery in Council Bluffs.

Rapid City, South Dakota, City of Presidents statue:

In 1861, Lincoln stopped in Buffalo, New York, on his way to his inauguration. He gave a speech from the American Hotel with ex-president Millard Fillmore by his side (the hotel location is now Main Place Mall which is permanently closed). The only commemoration of this speech is this mural in the Buffalo History Museum.

According to this plaque, Lincoln also attended a church service in Buffalo with Millard Fillmore in this building.

Lincoln stood here in Philadelphia in 1861.

In Cleveland, Ohio, two plaques can be found marking Lincoln's visit in 1861 on his way to his Presidential inauguration. You can find them on the Rockefeller building at 614 W. Superior Avenue.

In the George W. Bush Presidential Center  in Dallas the oval office replica contained a bust and portrait of Lincoln, and a debate notebook was displayed in another exhibit.

Shelbyville, Illinois, commemorates Lincoln's debate with fellow attorney and friend, Anthony Thornton that took place in 1856.

Across from the courthouse, these plaques can be found.

Inside the courthouse is a painting of the three hour plus debate. The lighting was difficult for photos.

Seven debates took place between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. We visited the one in Freeport, Illinois.

The only known time Lincoln set foot in Michigan was here in Bronson Park, Kalamazoo, in 1856.

In 1900, a statue of Lincoln was unveiled in Hackley Park in Muskegon, Michigan, where it still sits today.

Also in Muskegon is a five foot concrete sculpture in someone's front yard. In July of 2021 the head and one finger were broken off and stolen. The head was returned in October but the finger is still at large.

Rockford, Michigan, installed a Lincoln statue/bench that is a favorite of those walking by.

In downtown Detroit, we found a bust of Lincoln that has had a bad nose repair. It was created by Gutzon Borglum (of Mount Rushmore fame) in 1918.

Another Lincoln-Michigan connection concerns the party that hunted down John Wilkes Booth. Luther Byron Baker was a member of the Union army's intelligence service and was present when John Wilkes Booth was trapped in a barn. Another member of the party then shot and killed Booth. After the war, Baker moved to Lansing, Michigan, where he lived out the rest of his life and was buried.

As odd as it may seem, the chair in which Lincoln was sitting when he was assassinated resides in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

This courthouse, originally standing in what is now Lincoln, Illinois, was acquired by Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Lincoln stopped in as a circuit lawyer from 1840-1847.

Rockford, Illinois remembers his visit.

We found a temporary statue downtown Chicago in 2016.

Lincoln tried and won a case here in Mount Vernon, Illinois in 1859. This sculptor gave him really big hands.

The world's largest covered wagon, "Railsplitter Covered Wagon" can be found in Lincoln IL

Bloomington Illinois has two Lincoln statues, the bench and "The Convergence of Purpose" featuring Lincoln with two of his friends, Jesse Fell and David Davis.

Here is a young Lincoln lawyer in Pontiac, Illinois.

Springfield, Illinois

First Law Office, Springfield, Illinois

Old State Capitol building, Springfield

Lincoln's vice president during his first term was Hannibal Hamlin. He was dropped from the ticket for Lincoln's re-election campaign. That certainly changed history.

Lincoln statue in the current State Capitol.

Lincoln's home in Springfield, 1844-1861

Springfield is full of Lincoln tributes and here are a few.

This one is not a Lincoln tribute but is an interesting, historic marker.

The Lincoln Presidential Museum is a must-see in Springfield. It's not part of the National Park Service (the home is) but it is full of informative exhibits.

Lincoln left Springfield when he was elected President in 1861.

In front of Grand Union Station in Springfield, Lincoln's first inaugural address is commemorated.

Near his museum, Lincoln's second inaugural address is memorialized.

The Rutherford B Hayes Museum in Fremont, Ohio, has a pair of Lincoln's slippers.

Here are a few artifacts on display in a 2023 exhibit at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

A piece of Lincoln's vest removed on the night he died.

Me and Lincoln at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan.

We visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of the 1863 Lincoln address.

The Allen County Museum in Lima, Ohio, has this Lincoln bust.

And the Truman Library/Museum in Independence, Missouri, has this one.

Indianapolis, Indiana has markers to remember the Lincoln funeral train and its stop on the way from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois.

We found teenage Lincoln in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Des Moines, Iowa

Cincinnati, Ohio has a large and rather rough-looking Lincoln.

We took a White House tour in 2015 and took these photos.

The China Room:

The State Dining Room with the famous 1869 portrait of Lincoln.

The East Room, where Lincoln lay in state:

Abraham Lincoln has a grand tomb in Springfield, one befitting the man who saved the Union. But before he was placed in it, he resided here, behind the current tomb.

The current tomb.

We passed through Springfield again in 2024 and were able to get inside the tomb.

Some of his family members are also entombed here.

His memorial in Washington D.C. 

We randomly drove past this sign in Virginia near Port Royal.

Abraham Lincoln's likeness will likely gaze out upon us forever from Mount Rushmore.

When Lincoln was killed in 1865, there were fifteen former or future presidents alive, the most of any of the four assassinated presidents. Although he had a law license, Lincoln is one of twelve presidents without a college degree.

"Whatever you are, be a good one."