Abraham Lincoln looms large in American culture as one of our most iconic presidents. His struggles, trials, and achievements are topics of national interest and local, state, and national commemoration usually has high visitation. Based on my limited knowledge of other sites, the National Park Service has 8 park sites and units associated with him: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace (and Boyhood Home at Knob Creek), Lincoln Boyhood, Lincoln Home, The White House, Ford's Theater, the Petersen House [The house where Lincoln died], the Lincoln Memorial, and Mt. Rushmore. Living near the Lincoln Boyhood afforded the opportunity on a day-off to go and visit on a day off with some co-workers and family.
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| Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial visitor center |
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Field crops are looking good, just need to move
that disc out of the way and it would be perfect.
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The first impression received upon arrival to the visitor center was the sculpted exterior that seemed to harken to Egyptian reliefs and carvings. The tall panels depicted symbolic times in Abraham's life. Inside the semi-circular museum, we paid the entrance fee and browsed both the museum and a small souvenir shop. The far ends of the building were impressive halls. One seemed very much like a church setting, the other like a conference room and seemed to be dedicated to special events rather than daily visitor use or programming. The walls and displays were Lincoln images and lithographs in frames. A 15 minute video summarized the Lincolns' 14 years at the site very well. The museum further on did not have many artifacts, but did have a lot of flat panel reading and images. Beyond were tools and a vignette of what the interior of the cabin might have looked like at the time.
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“All that I am or ever hope to be,
I owe to my angel mother.”
-Abraham Lincoln |
Accessibility seemed limited with our stroller; I had to carry it up some steps (without the child in it!) at certain points. The park had a few hiking trails, one of which was the 12 Stone Trail with stones taken from areas of significant events of Lincoln's life like stones from the Petersen home, the White House, the store he owned, and from his birthplace, to name a few. Beyond was the Living History
Farm area near where the actual cabin was. Field crops and gardens looked well tended. Inside the cabin was the only other park staff we met that day besides the Student Conservation Association intern working the Visitor Center counter. He was pleasant to speak with and was willing to share more information (he mentioned another interpreter was on break so he was the only one there at the time). The site included a carpentry shop with tools for demonstrations, barns and pens, and the smokehouse had some recently finished hams in there hanging. The chickens were penned but still around. The other livestock were hard to find but we managed to find the sheep before we left to go
to the pioneer cemetery. There, the marker to Nancy Lincoln, Abraham's mother, had a small offering of pennies on the stone and the surrounding areas; the exact location of her body is unknown. Overall, it was about a two hour visit and well worth the time.
As usual, deciding what criteria to use to properly evaluate an interpretive site is a challenge. In this case, the significance of the site and how well the site tries to engage the visitor in delivering a message and meaning will be the criteria.
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| Big shoes to fill |
My wife likes to do the Junior Ranger Programs at the National Parks and she said that the answers were pretty easy and could be filled out easily during the visit. The video area had a life-size cutout of Lincoln and supposedly shoes that were size 14 so students could try them on and see how they measure up to the 6'4" lanky Lincoln. The video, while dated, effectively described the Lincoln's lives at the farm as well as some of Abraham's adventures on the riverboats and concluded with statements to the effect that Abraham's time at this location helped shape the sort of person he would be in Illinois and ultimately in the presidency. There were a lot of flat panel text and images which made the displays difficult to handle after a while, especially since there were few artifacts that were representative of the ones that the Lincoln's may have used. If there were nuggets of connections to what Lincoln in Indiana means to visitors, it was buried somewhere on a wall of text. Besides the buttons one could push to light areas in the vignette, there were no interactive displays.
The 12 Stone Trail, which we walked on in reverse order, seemed like an odd attempt at engaging the visitor. It seemed like this technique would appeal to some and not to others, but was a creative use of a hiking trail. As Americans, we highly value Power of Place (being there where it really happened) and souvenirs. These 12 stones (souvenirs) come from significant places (Power of Place) in Lincoln's journey but because rocks can be a mundane souvenir especially out of context from their vague places that their power to interpret is dulled. Some of the rocks came from minor locations in his life, like the store he used to own, or vague, such as the rock from near where he gave the Gettysburg Address, because he spoke on a platform in a graveyard the stone must
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| The interactive portion of the museum |
have been from the wall or field stones in the surrounding area outside of the town. So the general reception of the stones on the path is mixed and vague. The Living History Farm being in good enough shape was great to see. However, having one out or even two interpreters at the Living History site was tough on visitors wanting to ask questions since the one interpreter that was present was chatty and there were a good amount of people visiting on a Tuesday. Of course, because it was a Tuesday, it meant that there were going to be less visitors, and therefore less staff to interpret. During this visit, we met no uniformed National Park staff, nor were any tours offered or mentioned.
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Caption reads "This rock from
where President Lincoln stood when
he delivered the Gettysburg Address
November 19, 1863"
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So, while the video explicitly tackles the significance of the site, other means of engaging the visitor with meaning had vary degrees of success. The video was a great tool to clearly lay out significance and message, but was not very complete on pursuing meaning.The Junior Ranger program is great for kids to connect but seemed to struggle with how to reach adults. Not every adult can handle reading three and a half walls of text. The interpreter at the farm site talked about topics but did not delve into what pioneer life was like or what the Lincolns' experience in southern Indiana means to visitors. The 12 Stone hike was creative, but fell short of trying to grasp meaning. In short, a visit to Lincoln's Boyhood National Memorial is a worthwhile trip if you are in the area if you want to look at pioneer life and another segment of Lincoln's life, but it does not get very deep in meaning. It is there to fill the visitor in about the Indiana portion of Lincoln's life.
