We visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois today and took a National Park tour of the actual house he lived in before moving to Washington D.C. to become the 12th president of the United States.
The museum was really well done. First, we saw a Holagraphic presentation of a presidential library worker depicting the ‘Ghosts of the Library’ and their search for more information about Lincoln’s life. Then we saw a movie about Lincoln’s life. After a walk through a Lincoln log cabin which depicted his childhood, we strolled through excellent presentations about his White House years and the Civil War.
The highlight of the day, was the National Park tour through Lincoln’s actual Springfield home where he resided with his family when he was a lawyer and as a congressional representative of Illinois. Understandably in such an historic home, the ranger advised us not to touch any of the artifacts and to be careful during the tour. However, as we embarked on the stairs to the second floor we were encouraged to hold onto the banister, which was the actual banister that Lincoln used when he lived there. It was moving for us to hold it, and a memory that we will long treasure.