Lincoln Exhibit
 | |
| Alternative names | Lincoln Museum |
|---|---|
| Location | The Trail |
| No. of Buildings | 1 |
| Construction | |
| Construction Cost | $6,500 ($196,035 in 2021) |
| Proft | $6,653 ($200,669 in 2021) |
| Entry | |
| Adult Entry | 15¢ ($5 in 2021) |
Near the Illinois pavilion on The Trail was the attraction that showcased the life and death of President Abraham Lincoln.
Description
Inside the museum, a long chamber contained the President's boyhood log cabin, and at the other end his funeral car.
Cabin
When he was four years old Abraham Lincoln lived in a log cabin in what was then Hardin county, Kentucky (now Larue county). That cabin, duly authenticated, was brought to the World’s Fair and reassembled log by log. The hewn logs look their age. The space between the logs is chinked with yellow clay. They enclose a single room about fifteen feet square. The cabin was bought by Lincoln’s father for 20 dollars and ten barrels of whiskey.
Within the cabin, various displays of Lincoln's youth were shown. Upon the crude mantel above the fireplace is an old fashioned clock which belonged to the Lincoln family. Within the cabin was the wheel upon which Nancy Hanks spun and the loom upon which she wove.
Funeral Car
The funeral car, "weather beaten and patched, with black and white drapery" was also the president’s and his cabinet’s official coach during the Civil War. In this rail car, the president was carried from city to city, a long roundabout way of nearly two thousand miles, to his final resting place among the oaks on the edge of Springfield.
It was famous rolling stock in its day. When turned out of the military car shops, which the United States conducted at Alexandria during the Civil War, this coach was considered the finest in the country. It was the official car of the President, the only official car made for a President of the United States. On the sides was the coat of arms of the United States, in metal.
The car was brought in from the Union Pacific railroad boneyard in Omaha, Nebraska, where it had been slowly decaying. Some pieces of furniture used in the car by Lincoln and his Cabinet when they traveled, were in the Museum. One is a seven foot sofa which could be turned into a bed for the 6' 4" tall president.
