Mr. Lincoln, I've been thinkin'....

Where do you go when you need a break, but not too much of a break? When the well of creativity is dry and you just want to get out of town--but you still want to be able to count it as school time? What do we have to study that we have sadly neglected? Local History of course. State History, to be specific. So where did we go on our last field trip? You can guess. We went further afield than we have in awhile...

Springfield Illinois! The Land of Lincoln--literally. The site of the only National Park managed property in Illinois--the Abraham Lincoln Home National Historical Site (and yes, I got a stamp in my National Parks Passport.) It's a nice little town, but as two days wore on we noted a theme amongst the places we visited. Springfield is not only home to the Lincoln Home, but also the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Lincoln Depot, the Lincoln Law Office, the Old Capitol Building (where Lincoln delivered the "House Divided" speech), the Lincoln Pew (in the Presbyterian church), the Lincoln Ledger in the archives, and of course the Lincoln Tomb. Just outside of town is New Salem where Abraham Lincoln lived as a young man, and if you want to complete the list there's even a town named Lincoln just a few miles past it all.
We had great weather and the kids earned their third Junior Park Ranger badge while visiting the Lincoln Home NHS. They now have badges from Sequoia NP, Acadia NP and the Lincoln Home NHS. At this rate, they will be able to earn enough badges to trade in for a National Park pony or bison or something. At the very least they should be fully fledged rangers by the time they're fifteen or so.

George, Abe, Mary, Hannah, Willie and Caleb

There were memorials to Lincoln all over the town. The kids really liked the life-sized Lincoln family statues. I was more impressed that we managed to park all day for less than ten dollars. Sweet!

Trying on Tad's Hat

Hannah found a friend

We even took a ghost tour of Springfield on our second night in town. It was really more of a historic tour with some ghosts thrown in for color...Caleb kept asking the tour guide when he would get to the "spooky stories." I'm afraid Caleb was destined to be disappointed.

Notice that I didn't mention visiting the Capitol? We didn't. I had considered going--contacting our state senator or legislator, but I didn't. This was on purpose. I had considered it, but when I mentioned it, Hannah demanded of me, "The state capitol? Isn't that were all the thieves work?"

I suppose that I have to take a more definite line in distinguishing my editorial commentary from our school lessons. I don't want to think that the only thing I've taught my kids in the past year is how to be cynical. So in the interest of keeping the tour guides at the state capitol free of my daughter's demands ("I'd like a list of everyone who is currently under indictment, and the crimes that they are accused of") we took a pass on the present and concentrated on the past.

On our way out of town we stopped at Oak Ridge Cemetery to visit the Lincoln Tomb. Oak Ridge is a beautiful setting, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. There were several buses at the tomb when we arrived, so we passed on an immediate tour and looked around some other places in the cemetery first. We saw a lot of really neat memorials--much of them very traditional (weeping angels!) but there are quite a few modern burials in Oak Ridge also. This memorial was puzzling for us. The man buried here was a dentist. What was this? A set of forceps? Elephant tusks? Teeth spreaders? We were stumped.

Then we noticed the shadows. It was obvious what these were; they were angel wings.

Hannah Angel

Caleb Angel

Rock on, Angel.

When we returned to the Lincoln Tomb, the school groups were gone and we had the building to ourselves...mostly. There was the Peru Illinois Ladies Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Union* on their annual Lincoln pilgrimage, but I didn't think they would be poorly behaved in the tomb. Caleb, however, was not quite so forgiving as I was. "They're as loud as kids," he informed me. (To be fair, it's difficult to be quiet when you are surrounded by as much marble and granite as is inside the tomb.)

To anyone who hasn't been at the tomb, it's an impressive edifice. The outside is stunning, but the inside is really quite something. When you step through the public entrance you are in a small rotunda of marble and palladium with ironwork grilles with a corn motif (symbolizing Illinois, of course) and with columns and stars representing the states that were part of the Union when Lincoln was President. The hallway curves around with niches that have small statutes representing various aspects and stages of Lincoln's life. There are plaques with parts of his Second Inaugural Address ("With malice towards none; charity towards all...") and the Gettysburg Address. 

And then there is the burial chamber. There are niches where Mary Todd Lincoln, Willie, Tad and Eddie are interred--they really were a tragic family--and across from them is Lincoln's resting place. There is a large (very large) monument above his grave. I'm assuming it's his final resting place. The poor man was disinterred at least six times because of problems with the tomb, grave robbers, and doubt that he was actually dead. 

The Peru Illinois Ladies Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Union* was behind us on our first pass through the burial chamber. Caleb asked if we could return. "I just want a little bit of silence," he informed me. "I can't read when everyone is talking. I can't think." So we waited until the ladies had left and we returned to the burial chamber.

"Do you have more questions?" the very nice docent asked us. 

"No," I explained. "My son just wants a few moments of silence back here."

The lady smiled softly at Caleb. "Sometimes I come here early in the morning so that I can have a few moments of peace with Mr. Lincoln, myself," she confessed.

So Hannah knelt before the tomb respectfully. Caleb bowed his head and closed his eyes. We spent a quiet moment in front of the memorial to the man who was arguably our greatest President--definitely one of this country's greatest men. After a few moments, I nudged Caleb. "Is this enough?"

He looked curiously let down. "Yes. Thank you," he told the docent as we left. I'm sure that she went home that night with fond thoughts of the respectful children who stopped by to pay their respects to her Mr. Lincoln...but I had my doubts.

"Caleb," I asked him as we exited into the sunlight. "Were you listening for a ghost?

"Yes," he admitted. "I'm not sure, but I might have heard footsteps. It's hard because everyone is so loud!"

With or without ghosts, we had a wonderful trip into our nation's past, and our state's history which, per the State of Illinois Board of Education Leaning Standards, is something that they have to study. Funny, but it didn't feel much like studying.

(*Peru Illinois Ladies Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Union--I made this up. I have no idea who they were, or where they were from. They were very nice.)