The first historic place we visited during our stay in Springfield, Ill., was the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. It’s pretty cool. The government purchased a couple blocks, and all the old houses are standing. You can go into a few of them and get a feel for what it was like in the mid-1800s.

We took the tour of the Lincoln home, of course. He lived there up until becoming president. Was interesting to see what kind of living conditions his family was subjected to. And also neat to see some of the actual items from the home.

Below are some of the pictures we took during the tour. It was a rainy morning, so we didn’t use the camera much outdoors.

First, here’s a recreation of the most famous photo of the Lincoln home (see the card Sarah is holding on the bottom left; I blurred the home intentionally, so you know!):




And this is Lincoln’s actual desk (must have been tough to use at 6-foot-4, eh?):



And this is the outhouse (there were three pots in here – probably some interesting sitting time with Abraham and his boys, don’t you think?):