BGuthrie Photos: KY -- Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP

KY -- Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 3.133.109.30 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] LINCBP_081006_011.JPG	[2] LINCBP_081006_018.JPG	[3] LINCBP_081006_023.JPG	[4] LINCBP_081006_031.JPG	[5] LINCBP_081006_034.JPG
[6] LINCBP_081006_038.JPG	[7] LINCBP_081006_042.JPG	[8] LINCBP_081006_045.JPG	[9] LINCBP_081006_049.JPG	[10] LINCBP_081006_053.JPG
[11] LINCBP_081006_054.JPG	[12] LINCBP_081006_058.JPG	[13] LINCBP_081006_068.JPG	[14] LINCBP_081006_072.JPG	[15] LINCBP_081006_077.JPG
[16] LINCBP_081006_098.JPG	[17] LINCBP_081006_101.JPG	[18] LINCBP_081006_105.JPG	[19] LINCBP_081006_114.JPG	[20] LINCBP_081006_121.JPG
[21] LINCBP_081006_126.JPG	[22] LINCBP_081006_142.JPG	[23] LINCBP_081006_160.JPG	[24] LINCBP_081006_171.JPG	[25] LINCBP_081006_178.JPG
[26] LINCBP_081006_185.JPG	[27] LINCBP_081006_191.JPG	[28] LINCBP_081006_203.JPG	[29] LINCBP_081006_208.JPG	[30] LINCBP_081006_220.JPG
[31] LINCBP_081006_236.JPG	[32] LINCBP_081006_250.JPG	[33] LINCBP_081006_252.JPG	[34] LINCBP_081006_257.JPG	[35] LINCBP_081006_267.JPG
[36] LINCBP_081006_284.JPG	[37] LINCBP_081006_285.JPG	[38] LINCBP_081006_288.JPG	[39] LINCBP_081006_293.JPG	[40] LINCBP_081006_297.JPG
[41] LINCBP_081006_302.JPG	[42] LINCBP_081006_309.JPG	[43] LINCBP_081006_321.JPG	[44] LINCBP_081006_324.JPG	[45] LINCBP_081006_327.JPG
[46] LINCBP_081006_334.JPG	[47] LINCBP_081006_340.JPG	[48] LINCBP_081006_349.JPG	[49] LINCBP_081006_354.JPG	[50] LINCBP_081006_359.JPG
[51] LINCBP_081006_369.JPG	[52] LINCBP_081006_379.JPG	[53] LINCBP_081006_387.JPG	[54] LINCBP_081006_392.JPG	[55] LINCBP_081006_398.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LINCBP_081006_023.JPG: The family bible, printed in 1799, which may have been the first book Abraham Lincoln read.
2. LINCBP_081006_031.JPG: A wild guess as to what the interior of the cabin might have looked like
3. LINCBP_081006_049.JPG: The Boyhood Home at Knob Creek: Another move, a first memory: Abraham Lincoln's only memories of Kentucky were of living at the Knob Creek Farm. The Lincolns moved to the fertile valley, 10 miles northeast of Sinking Spring Farm, when Abraham was two. A little learning: Abraham and Sarah walked to a one-room schoolhouse known as an ABC School or "Blab" School because children recited lessons aloud. Thomas Lincoln paid for his children to briefly attend the school taught by Zachariah Riney and Caleb Hazel. The boy grows: Abraham experienced loss and fear at Knob Creek. His infant brother, Thomas, died, and Abraham reputedly almost drowned in the creek. His playmate Austin Gollaher recalled pulling him to safety. Life beyond the farm: The old Louisville Nashville Road that ran past the Knob Creek Farm was a main route through Kentucky. At the roadside, young Abraham could have seen soldiers returning from the War of 1812 and chained slaved on their way to market. Inside the cabin, he heard talk of slavery. The anti-slavery Lincolns were members of a Baptist church that split over the issue. On to Indiana: The Lincolns were among 10 families evicted from Knob Creek Farm in an ownership dispute. Abraham Lincoln recalled that his family left Kentucky for Indiana in the fall of 1816 "partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty of land titles."
4. LINCBP_081006_053.JPG: Sinking Spring Farm: The family moves: In December 1808, Thomas Lincoln paid $200 cash for the 300-acre Sinking Spring Farm -- one-third of which is the park you are visiting today. Thomas, Nancy, and Sarah, who was not yet two years old, moved here from nearby Elizabethtown, Kentucky, shortly before Nancy was to give birth to their second child. A President is born: Abraham Lincoln entered the world February 12 -- a Sunday -- in the year 1809. Nancy likely placed him on a bed of cornhusks in front of the cabin's fireplace and covered him with animal skins to keep him warm. The pioneer life: The Lincolns drew water from the Sinking Spring. The freshwater source and upland location made the land a good home site. Stony, clay soil though, was not good for growing crops. Thomas farmed a small area and continued to work as a carpenter. Forced to leave: After only two years, the Lincolns had to leave Sinking Spring Farm because of a problem with the land title. Thomas believed he owned the land and fought in court to keep it, but he lost the case.
5. LINCBP_081006_054.JPG: Thomas Lincoln: A difficult start: At age 10, Thomas saw his father shot to death by an Indian as the family planted a field in the Kentucky countryside. Thomas stayed by the body and might have died had his brother not returned fire. To help support the family, Thomas likely looked for work as soon as he was old enough to earn wages. Abraham Lincoln later described his father as "even in childhood a wandering, laboring boy." Landowner, public servant: Working as a carpenter and hired hand, Thomas bought a 200-acre farm in Hardin County, Kentucky at age 27. As a landowner or freeholder, he became eligible for community service. He served as a juror, patrolman, and road surveyor at various times during his life in Kentucky. Husband, builder, father: By the time he married, Thomas has established a respectable drawing account -- money in the bank -- with an Elizabethtown, Kentucky merchant. He built his bride a cabin in Elizabethtown, where he owned two lots. They welcomed their first child, Sarah, the following year. Solid citizen: "Humility, sobriety, industry and integrity" characterized Thomas Lincoln as he matured and had a family, Lincoln biographer Louis A. Warren wrote in 1926.
6. LINCBP_081006_058.JPG: Nancy Hawks Lincoln: Details are sketchy: Little is known about the early life of Nancy Hanks, whose father probably died before she and her mother moved from Virginia to Kentucky. Nancy lived with an aunt and uncle in Washington County, Kentucky, where she met Thomas Lincoln, a neighbor. Marriage and motherhood: She married Thomas Lincoln June 12, 1806. The couple settled in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and became parents of a baby girl, Sarah, in 1807. Flax and folklore: Folklore describes Nancy as an expert spinner of flax who taught her family to read and write. There is no evidence, however, that Nancy could read or write. Legal documents show that Thomas's mother, Bersheba, could write her name and that Thomas could write his name before he married Nancy. Her contribution: While Nancy Lincoln remains somewhat a mystery, her place in history is clear. Lincoln historian Louis A. Warren wrote in 1926: "Her short and obscure life may not have impressed her contemporaries with its significance, but the offering she made to the nation gave it a new birth." Abraham Lincoln gave his mother all the credit for his later accomplishments, even though she died when he was nine. His law partner, William H. Herndon, wrote that Lincoln once told him: "Everything I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother. I remember my mother's prayers, and they have always followed me."
7. LINCBP_081006_072.JPG: The First Book and Lifelong Influence: Early exposure to scripture: Perhaps the first book Abraham Lincoln saw was this Bible. Printed in 1799, the translation was a popular one that found its way into many homes, including Thomas and Nancy Lincoln's. Relatives kept the Bible until it went on display at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The Bible later sold for $125, and was later acquired by the US Government. Childhood to manhood: A grown-up Abraham Lincoln recorded his own birth and other important dates in the Bible's family pages. As President, he wrote of his mother's reading the Bible to the family but did not specify whether he meant Nancy Hanks Lincoln, who died when he was nine, or stepmother Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, whom he also called Mother.
8. LINCBP_081006_203.JPG: BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LINCOLN FARM ASSOCIATION WILLIAM H. TAFF JOSEPH W. FOLK HORACE PORTER CHARLES E. HUGHES OSCAR S. STRAUS JOHN A. JOHNSON ALBERT SHAW SAMUEL L. CLEMENS CLARENCE H. MACKAY NORMAN HAPGOOD LYMAN J. GAGE SAMUEL GOMPERS AUGUST BELMONT ROBERT J. COLLIER AUGUSTUS E. WILLSON HENRY WATTERSON JENKIN LLOYD JONES THOMAS HASTINGS IDA M. TARBELL CHARLES A. TOWNE RICHARD LLOYD JONES CARDINAL GIBBONS JOSEPH H. CHAOTE EDWARD M. SHEPARD WILLIAM J. BRYAN CHARLES E. MINER WILLIAM T. JEROME AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS
9. LINCBP_081006_208.JPG: THIS MEMORIAL ERECTED BY POPULAR SUBSCRIPTION THROUGH THE LINCOLN FARM ASSOCIATION JOSEPH W. FOLK PRESIDENT ROBERT J. COLLIER VICE PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CLARENCE H. MACKAY TREASURER RICHARD LLOYD JONES SECRETARY JOHN RUSSELL POPE ARCHITECT CORNER STONE LAID BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT FEBRUARY 12TH 1909 DEDICATED BY PRESIDENT TAFT NOVEMBER 9TH 1911
10. LINCBP_081006_257.JPG: Sinking Spring: Abraham Lincoln probably took his first drink of water from this spring. A dependable water source undoubtedly was an important factor in Thomas Lincoln's decision to purchase Sinking Spring Farm. The Sinking Spring is an example of a karst window, an unusual landform. A karst window is a special type of sinkhole that gives us a view into the karst aquifer. Typical of Kentucky's karst typography and hydrologic systems, the spring is a significant natural resource. Its water drains through the subsurface and empties into a branch of the Nolia River a short distance from the park. Sinking Spring is a part of the network of springs and subsurface streams in and near the park.
11. LINCBP_081006_267.JPG: Sinking Spring
12. LINCBP_081006_293.JPG: Boundary Oak: The Boundary Oak was one of the most significant features of Sinking Spring Farm. Until its death in 1976, the great white oak remained the "last living link" to Abraham Lincoln. The tree, thought to be 25 to 30 years old at Lincoln's birth, was located less than 150 yards from the cabin where he was born. Oak trees often served as boundary markers and survey points for determining property lines because they could live well beyond 200 years. The tree served as a boundary marker in the original farm survey. Before its death in 1976 and its removal in 1986, the Boundary Oak reached six feet in diameter and 90 feet high with a crown spread of 115 feet.
13. LINCBP_081006_297.JPG: This is where the boundary oak had been. A slice of it is in the visitor center.
14. LINCBP_081006_324.JPG: Encore for a Threatened Giant: Settlers like Abraham Lincoln's family depended on chestnuts for both food and shelter. In the early 1800s, chestnuts dominated the woods here at Sinking Spring Farm. You could build everything from a log cabin to split rail fences using these tall, straight, rot-resistant trees. And both people and livestock enjoyed the sweet taste of chestnuts. Chestnut trees once filled forests from Maine to Georgia and west through the Ohio River Valley -- some 9,000,000 acres. In Lincoln's lifetime, one out of every four hardwood trees was an American chestnut. Then in the 1920s an important disease called chestnut blight killed four billion trees. Today, scientists at the American Chestnut Foundation are working to bring this key species back. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace works with the Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors and the American Chestnut Foundation to plant chestnut trees here as part of the bicentennial celebration of Lincoln's birth.
15. LINCBP_081006_327.JPG: Nancy Lincoln Inn
16. LINCBP_081006_334.JPG: Welcome to the Nancy Lincoln Inn: Built in 1928 and named in honor of Abraham Lincoln's mother, the Inn is now a museum and souvenir shop. Enter and learn important facts about young Abe's birthplace and his Knob Creek boyhood home. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the inn provides its visitors with a remarkable visual account of Lincoln's life and speeches. Come in and examine our inventory of Lincoln-related memorabilia, souvenirs, photographs, framed prints, books and postcards. Make your visit a truly memorable experience by spending a night in one of our four historic log cabins. Inquire within.
17. LINCBP_081006_354.JPG: Nancy Lincoln Inn: The Nancy Lincoln Inn is a symbol of devotion to Abraham Lincoln's family from the early days of auto tourism. In 1928, James R. Howell built the inn, named in honor of Lincoln's mother, to accommodate increasing numbers of motorists who were coming to rural Kentucky to visit Lincoln's birthplace and the Memorial Building. Howell, a descendant of Kentucky pioneers, constructed the inn and four cabins with large chestnut logs and red pine flooring. The 16-by-18 foot, one-room cabins were built to be similar to what we imagine the Lincoln cabin might have been. These buildings were placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 10, 1991. James Richard Howell operated a roller mill and served at various times as a city councilman, school board member, mayor, sheriff, state legislator, and US Marshall.
18. LINCBP_081006_369.JPG: Swath of the boundary oak
19. LINCBP_081006_398.JPG: Simplicity and Symbolism: The story of the cabin: The cabin inside the memorial has a history of its own. A New Yorker who purchased Sinking Spring Farm in 1894 moved the cabin here, believing it was the original Lincoln home that had been relocated in the area by a former landholder. A traveling exhibit: In the late 1800s, the owner took the cabin apart to show it in various cities. He later stored the logs in a basement in New York. The Lincoln Farm Association bought the cabin in 1906 and brought it back to Kentucky to become part of the memorial. The cabin was scaled down in size to fit inside the memorial building. A life memorialized: In all likelihood, the cabin is not the original. However, it inspires with its dramatic contrast of the simple place where Lincoln started and the powerful position in which he finished. Like the cabin, the memorial building is rich with symbolism that includes 56 steps for Lincoln's age at his death and 16 ceiling rosettes for this election as 16th President of the United States.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site preserves two farm sites where Abraham Lincoln lived as a child.

In the fall of 1808, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln settled on Sinking Spring Farm. Today this site bears the address of 2995 Lincoln Farm Road, Hodgenville, Kentucky. Two months later on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin. A cabin, symbolic of the one in which Lincoln was born, is preserved in a memorial building at the site. The Lincolns lived and farmed at Sinking Spring before moving to land a few miles away at Knob Creek, which is located a few miles to the northeast along U.S. Highway 31.

Memorial Building:

A Beaux-Arts neo-classical Memorial Building was designed by John Russell Pope for the birthplace site. In 1909 the cornerstone was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt and the building was dedicated in 1911 by William Howard Taft. Almost a hundred years after Thomas Lincoln moved from Sinking Spring Farm, the log cabin was placed inside the Memorial Building. The Memorial Building features 16 windows, 16 rosettes on the ceiling, and 16 fence poles, representing Lincoln being the 16th president. There are 56 steps leading up to the building, representing his age at the time of his death.

The log cabin:

The original log cabin that Lincoln is reputed to have been born in was dismantled sometime prior to 1865. Local tradition held that some of the logs from the cabin were used in construction of a nearby house. New York businessman A.W. Dennett purchased the Lincoln farm in 1894 and used the logs from this house to create a cabin which approximated the appearance of the original cabin Lincoln was born in on a site near the Sinking Spring, but shortly thereafter it was again dismantled and re-erected for exhibition in many cities. Eventually, the logs for this cabin, along with logs reputed to belong to Jefferson Davis's birthplace.

The logs for both cabins, with a possible third cabin mixed in, were purchased by the Lincoln Farm Association (LFA) under the belief that only the Lincoln logs were included. When reassembly of the cabin was attempted, the problem was realized. The LFA ended up building a cabin very similar to the one build by Dennett. When the rebuilt cabin was placed in the Memorial Building, the size of the cabin made visitor circulation difficult so the LFA sawed the ends off the logs to reduce the size of the cabin from 16-by-18 feet to 12-by-17 feet.

Today, the veracity of the claim that these logs are from Lincoln's birth cabin have been largely seen as inaccurate.

Knob Creek:

Knob Creek features a log cabin and an historic tavern. The log cabin is not original to the site, but may have belonged to neighbors of the Lincolns, and was moved to the approximate location of the Lincolns' home. Abraham Lincoln's earliest memory was his near drowning in Knob Creek, and being saved by the neighbor's son.

Administrative history:

The original Memorial was constructed by the Lincoln Farm Association. In 1916, they donated the Memorial to the Federal government which established the Abraham Lincoln National Park on July 17, 1916. The War Department administered the site until August 10, 1933 when it was transferred to the National Park Service. It was designated as the Abraham Lincoln National Historical Park on August 11, 1939. It was renamed and re-designated to its current designation as a National Historic Site on September 8, 1959. As with all historic sites administered by the National Park Service, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Boundary expanded to include Knob Creek on November 6, 1998.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].