So the Abraham Lincoln president ial Library Museum opened its doors in 2005, but our collection goes back much further. In 1889, they established the Illinois State Historical Library and since that time, we have been collecting all the treasures that. Help illustrate illinoiss wonderful past. And as might imagine, the illinois story is not complete without. A really close at Abraham Lincolns life. In our lincoln collection, we have about 52,000 pieces that cover every aspect of Abraham Lincolns life that collection would include about 18,000 monographs written about Abraham Lincoln. He is the most written about american ever, which is quite staggering. So on any given day, a visitor, the museum is able to see about 100 original pieces from our collection that are on display. And theres always a reason to come back to the Abraham Lincoln president ial museum, because we are rotating those items out or putting new pieces on all the time. And we always like to say a visitor that comes to the museum, if you come back one year later, youre going to see a whole new group of 100 pieces from Abraham Lincolns life. So today i pulled some pieces out of our vault to show you. They help illustrate the life of Abraham Lincoln and some of my favorite pieces. Ill show you first. The oldest of writing that Abraham Lincoln did that survives. This is a piece of paper that Abraham Lincoln got his hands on in 1824 when he was living in that cabin in the middle of the wilderness as he got his hands on 11 pieces of paper, just like this. He sold them together and he made a little notebook and he used this to his way through a textbook. And you can see, he worked his way through sorts of mathematical problems. Hes doing addition subtraction, long multiplication. Hes a little boy that is trying desperately to acquire an education. Abraham lincoln had less than a year formal education. And so a lot his education is really selftaught. He picks it up by he picks it up by working way through a little textbooks. And so this is the first page of that notebook. I think its quite remarkable. Ill show a couple of my favorite things. This the first Abraham Lincoln that survives. Look at how clearly he wrote his name as a young teenage boy. Abraham lincoln told us in his autobiography raphe that he wrote for the 1860 election a little autobiographic sketch that his father had never done. More in the way of writing than to bungling, only sign his own name. Abraham lincoln, you can see, wanted a different life than his father had. His father had a rough signature. Later life. His fathers just making his mark on documents. But abraham wants Something Else in his life. He didnt want to be a subsistence farmer. He wanted to have a life that might include things like. Being a lawyer. Being a politician, etc. He didnt want to spend his in the wilderness. So he learned at a age how to make a good signature. And also whats so special . This document on the back, i think Abraham Lincoln might have got a little bored of working out some mathematical problems and he wrote a four line little poem. Abraham lincoln is my name and with my pen i wrote the same. I wrote in both haste and speed and left it here for fools to read. This is a really interesting piece thats in our permanent collection. Its a not a real fancy piece. Its a really common inkwell from the middle of the 19th century. But this inkwell participated in an extraordinary moment in american history. Thats when Abraham Lincoln in springfield craft his inaugural address. He this inkwell. Hes dipping his pen into this inkwell as hes searching for the words that will both be sterne, as well as reassuring to those folks in the southern states. Its this inkwell that he uses that he has by his side as. He seclude himself in springfield at location where hes not going to be bothered by. All the onlookers, all the individual is looking for a public statement. Mr. Lincoln is going to try to craft those words using this inkwell for the first inaugural address at the of his assassination when individuals were going through his office to collect not just the papers, also the contents of his office. This quill pen was on abraham desk. Now, when was a little boy in Southern Indiana . He was probably using quill pens as he was writing. But during his presidency, he wasnt using quill pens. He was actually using, you know, quite modern pens to do his eloquent writing. In fact, when found this pen on mr. Lincolns desk at the time the assassination, it was sitting close by a beautiful gold. Now, why did Abraham Lincoln have a quill pen, a gold pen sitting right next to each other on his desk. President. Its a matter of speculation. But consider this. Maybe the quill pen represents where Abraham Lincoln began in life in that cabin, with a dirt floor, with less than a year of formal education and maybe that gold pen symbol ises what he had achieved. Hes president of the United States and the time of his death, hes one of the most powerful men in the world. Its that evolution that Abraham Lincoln talked about during his presidency when he talked to soldiers as he was reviewing at the end of the war. And he was pleading with them to continue on this fighting until the war was finally over. Thats the lesson that he would tell those soldiers he had achieved. And it didnt matter where he started in life. But thats the american dream. Thats america is worth fighting for. Also, probably aint at why he hated slavery so much, because slavery is an artificial r. It only allowed a slave america to arise only so far and it hindered their ultatwth. Robert e lee surrendered to Ulysses Grant on april ninth, 1865, at appomattox. Its the virtual to, the eric civil war. There were other Confederate Army still in the field, but robert lees army is the big one. The that this is the end of the five days later, Abraham Lincoln, as you might imagine, was in good spiri he and his wife decided to see a play. They went to fors theater. And at evening they a py called our american cousin. I think its significant that wasnt agedyhat they went to go see. They wanted see a comedy. They wanted to laugh. They were in good spirits. And at a quarter after ten that evening, a very well known actor made his way into president ial box and he brutally murdered the president of the United States as he was Holding Hands with his wife. This piece. Helps illustrate the real tragedy of that evening. This was a fan. The fan mary lincoln brought with her to fords theater that night when it was brand new. It was probably quite striking. Ivory bass with a silk fan and it had ostrich plumes that came off the top. This was a brutal reminder to mary about the worst night of her life. As you can imagine, mary did not want to keep this fan in her possession after the tragedy of fords theater. She got rid of it and it became really a collectors item to individuals in the 19th century, all the way to to where it has its place in our museum. Mary lincoln had a fascinating. Shes a america most controversial first lady. Mary had a really tragic as well. The remaining years of her life were not happy, pleasant one and she had lost a little boy before presidency. She lost another boy during th white house years. And then in she lost a third little boy, tad, who was reall widowhood. Ion during her things went downhill for mary after that. And in 1875, her last remaining son made an excruciating decision to. Have his mother involuntarily committed to an asylum. And she spent about four months in a private in batavia, illinois. She never forgave her son, robert, for having done that. And so its a tragic episode in the life of mary lincoln. This is another relic from the assassination. These are the gloves that were in Abraham Lincolns on the night of the assassination. He kept gloves as the custom of the time to have these in your pocket when youre shaking peoples hands at an official event. Youd have on kid gloves. These a pair of white leather gloves. Over time, theyve probably shrunk a bit. But you can get a sense of Abraham Lincolns hands. Hes six foot four, is still the tallest president in american history. But he these pockets or these gloves in pocket. And when booth fired that shot at theack. Mr. Lincolns head, that horrible night at fords theater. The doctors entered the box, couldnt immediately identify where the wound was. It took several minutes for a doctor prodding around before he found a an entry wound. The back of mr. Lincoln said blood wasnt coming out of wound until the doctor placed his finger inside the wound. And then blood began to flow freely. Mr. Lincoln was laid out on the on the ground in the president ial box. And as the blood began flowing out of his hair, it went down the length of his body until it went into his pocket and it made its way onto these gloves. And you can see the remnants of the blood on these gloves today. And this artifact is really a reminder of the brutal that mr. Lincoln met. Its important for Museum Visitors to see original pieces on display, be it a that Abraham Lincoln wrote a a everyday that might have been in his home that he with as he got ready for the day. Those pieces are incredibly and as people walk through our museum because theres power theres magic in a museum artifact, there is something to be said for standing in front of the actual object. You can read about object. You can see it in a different format. Maybe a picture, a book. But when youre standing right in front it there is power in that piece. And i think the greatest power, those pieces is that they remind us that figures like Abraham Lincoln, lincoln himself, hes just a human being. And when you stand in front one of those pieces, you understand that Abraham Lincoln was a human
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