Learning About Lincoln

Learning About Lincoln in Springfield and New Salem!!

Izzy

6.16.19

     After arriving in Evanston on June 13th, Momo, Mom, Ethan, and I got in the car on the 14th for a 4 hour car ride to New Salem/Springfield, IL where we would visit New Salem Historic Village and the Lincoln Presidential Museum. The drive to New Salem was about 200 miles.

     When we arrived at New Salem, we walked through the village and went into many different log houses or buildings, most of them reconstructed replicas from Lincoln's time there. The weather was very good for this.We spent some time in the schoolhouse/church log house, the general store, houses of residents, and a tavern. There were "interpreters" wearing the dress of that time who explained the history of the building. Some of the most interesting things I learned were that boys and girls had different punishments at school for misbehaving. Boys would have to go outside and whittle a long, skinny stick that the teacher would then hit them with. Girls were not whipped, but would have to face the wall and stand on their toes with their arms up for 20 minutes, which I demonstrated (not for 20 minutes) and it was not easy 😓. There could be 15 kids from ages 5 to 13 at school in the one room and they would all repeat (blab) the lesson out loud to memorize it. It was the blab method and it was loud and noisy.

   We also went into the doctor's office and learned some gruesome information about how the doctor would treat sick people. When you were sick the doctor would poke you and let you bleed until you passed out to get all of the "bad" fluids out of you. They would also blister you and then pop them for the same purpose.

At the gift shop I got some old-fashioned scissors and a patch. I will use the scissors to do crafts.

    

     New Salem seemed like a fun town to live in and I can imagine how it must have been from all the information the interpreters gave us. I wonder how it would have been to go to the bathroom because they didn't have plumbing. All of the houses had a fireplace and that was where they would cook their food, they didn't have a microwave or fridge so I think it would be interesting to cook how they would cook back then. It would have also been hard to deal with the heat because they didn't have air conditioning and the women had to wear a long dress which would be super hot. The day we were there it was overcast so it felt fine in the buildings, and there was even a fire going in the school house.

     We spent the night in Springfield. The next day, Saturday, we walked in the rain to Lincoln's house. It rained all day. We walked through the Lincoln house with a tour guide and got to see all the rooms. There was some really crazy busy wallpaper! There was a formal parlor where Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd, would welcome guests, and a sitting room, or family room, where the Lincolns would spend time together. Mary and Lincoln also had separate bedrooms because it was fashionable at the time. I loved how you got to see how the house actually looked when the Lincolns were living in it. There was a house nearby that showed miniature versions of the house as the Lincolns added on and improved it.  

     We then walked to the Presidential Lincoln Museum where we did a scavenger hunt. We saw two movies and a presentation with holograms which was really cool.We walked through exhibits where there were figures of Lincoln and his family, friends, colleagues to explain the scene. There was one exhibit of Lincoln's childhood cabin and one of the Berry-Lincoln's store in New Salem. There was a part of the museum that had an entrance that looked like the White House and was about Lincoln's time there as president. I learned that there was a total of 1, 323, 000 casualties in the Civil War, which is a LOT! I also learned that in 1820 there were 1, 529, 012 slaves!!! In the gift shop I got a secret marker set that has a marker that writes invisibly and is only able to be seen after you go over it with the other marker. This was related to Lincoln because it was something they used in the Civil War.

     As we were leaving Springfield to return to Evanston, we stopped at Lincoln's tomb where we walked through and saw his grave and grave markers of his wife and three of his children. We rubbed the nose on the sculpture of Lincoln located in front of the tomb for good luck. It was a bright shiny nose on his bronze face! 

The Lincolns' house originally

Second update

Lincoln's bed

The final version and the one we walked through

                             

Mary's bed with a dress laid out on top   

Me rubbing Lincoln's nose at his tomb

The statue outside the Lincoln Presidential Museum