Impressively large semi-glossy 16 x 13 albumen photograph of the Lincoln family’s log cabin, affixed to its original 22 x 18 presentation mount with caption text below: “The Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin. This Log Cabin was built by Abraham Lincoln and his Father on Goose Nest Prairie, near Farmington, Illinois, in 1831.” Located near Charleston, Illinois, this log cabin was the home of Lincoln's father and stepmother, Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Lincoln, and where the former died in 1851. While traveling the circuit as a lawyer, Lincoln would visit them at this home and was involved with later purchasing some of the land for his parents to remain living there. The lower left of the photograph is marked: “Copyrighted 1891, by Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin Assn.” In very good to fine condition, with some damage to the wide borders of the mount, in no way affecting the actual photo itself. Although other albumen photographs of this log cabin do exist, scarce few are of this uncommonly large size, which depicts the cabin with such great detail.
In 1893, the log cabin was removed to Chicago for exhibition at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition but was unfortunately lost after the Exposition and possibly even used as firewood. Eleanor Gridley, author of The Story of Abraham Lincoln, or the Journey From The Log Cabin To The White House, spent two months in 1891 living at the log cabin with John Hall, a cousin of Lincoln. She lived there collecting stories for her book and gathering Lincoln artifacts for the Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin Association. This association later made it their goal to create a reproduction of this cabin, which exists today and is maintained by the state of Illinois as the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site.
The lot is accompanied by a photocopy of a letter written by Eleanor Gridley in 1933 as President of the Abraham Lincoln Log Cabin Association, describing her stay at the cabin in 1891, a copy of a statement from her book about her stay at the cabin, and a copy of two photographs published in her book picturing her and some Lincoln relatives in front of this log cabin.
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