Heart of Lincoln Land

OK, back to Lincoln now. I’ve created a new Lincoln T-shirt design, entitled "80s Abe", that blends my Lincoln and 80s interests. The T-shirts are available in black (shown), blue, and green on the Lincoln Apparel website, at my Etsy store, and at Springfield Novelties and Gifts on the 200 block of South 6th Street in historic downtown Springfield.

I’ve always wanted to create a "full front" print design, where the design fills up most or all of the front of the T-shirt. I’ve always loved how they look, and how intricate they often are. This is my first such design. I had a lot of fun making it!

This design was inspired by the famous "crew cut" portrait of Lincoln taken in February of 1865. As an 80s fan and a Lincoln fan, I’ve always loved this striking portrait of Lincoln. It shows Lincoln with an unusually short "crew cut" style haircut, perhaps because at this time sculptor Clark Mills was creating a life mask of Lincoln’s face. The plaster used to create the mask stuck to his hair, so Lincoln needed his hair cut short.

In the 1980s, this style of haircut became popular. So did bright neon colors, which I’ve always liked. It seemed only fitting that as a Lincoln fan, an 80s fan, and an artist, I’d create a T-shirt using this picture of Lincoln and bright 80s colors.

I figured that a design of this nature would look awesome as a "full front" print. Furthermore, it was simple enough that I could use it to "test" full front printing, but complex enough to be interesting and see how it would work before I made a very complex and intricate full front print design.

The results were spectacular, and I plan to make many more "full front" print T-shirts. The "80s Abe" represents a Lincoln for my generation, and for newer generations that have come to love the 80s. Lincoln, his words, and his memory have been invoked by every generation through the ages, and the 80s were no different. During that time, the "house divided" became a metaphor for the division between the Western democracies and the communist Eastern bloc countries, and his words were often used to extoll the virtues of democracy and promote its spread.

The fight for Lincoln’s ideals continues today. I chose to print this design on American Apparel, a sweatshop free, made in America T-shirt brand. I don’t think Lincoln would believe in sweatshop labor, so I won’t use brands of T-shirts that are made that way. I think he would want things to be made ethically, in a manner in which the workers have rights, so I make sure to make my T-shirts in accordance with his beliefs. These T-shirts are soft, comfortable, and durable, too – and I think Lincoln would like that!

Enjoy the T-shirt, enjoy Lincoln and the 80s, and feel good about it, too!

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I’ve just never gotten along with Facebook.

The start of the rocky relationship began 3 months ago, when I was pushed into creating an account just because everybody else was doing it, and because everybody else thought it would be a good way to showcase my T-shirts.

Right from the start, Facebook decided that its UI didn’t want to work the same as other website’s UIs. It presented ridiculous choices for the type of my “fan page”. Is it an “online store”? “Products”? Can’t I just enter in “T-shirts”? It didn’t even call them “fan pages”, even though they have a button that says “become a fan”, and they term their members “fans”. It called it “create a page for my business”.

I fought Facebook and eventually managed to create my personal page and fan page. Except I couldn’t find them. You’d think there’d be a list of all the pages I’ve created, so I could click on which one I wanted to post on. Except I couldn’t find that anywhere. I couldn’t even find anything that said “pages”. I went searching for a little “help” link. I eventually found it, but Facebook’s lackluster help section didn’t help me at all.

So I resorted to Google. It said that I should have a little “f” icon on the little taskbar Facebook gave me. (The sheer ridiculousness of using a “taskbar” inside a browser on a website made me laugh and cry at the same time.) Except Facebook decided that I shouldn’t have a little “f” icon. So I gave up, and eventually “deactivated” my account in frustration. (Apparently Facebook is kind of like the Hotel California – you can’t leave, only “deactivate”.) I told Facebook their UI sucks as my reason for deactivating. They said they’d look into my complaint, but they never did.

About a week later I decided to see if I could have a better relationship with Facebook. So I reactivated my account. I eventually found I could access my pages by clicking on the little “Create an Ad” link. Oh, how intuitive – you want to get me to buy an ad before I can even do anything!

Then Facebook decided I needed to have an identity crisis. I didn’t know which identity (personal or business) I was posting as when I posted something on one of my pages. It didn’t make any sense – shouldn’t I be able to choose which identity to post as? Apparently Facebook didn’t want to let me!

All the while, I was constantly encountering bugs and inconsistent UI behavior. Sometimes something would work, and sometimes it wouldn’t. Deleting my profile picture didn’t mean “delete” – it just meant it got saved in an album somewhere else, and I had to go delete them there. To “like” something, sometimes I had to hit the button twice. Sometimes it wouldn’t upload pictures properly. Sometimes it would just crash. It was also slow. It reminded me of Windows 95 running on a 486 with 4 megabytes of RAM.

Eventually, Facebook crashed big time. It locked up my browser tab, and I couldn’t log out. I closed the Facebook tab, and I couldn’t log back in again. I waited awhile, and it let me log in, but it gave me a “page not found” error. What the… ? All my work setting up this thing was lost for nothing!

I heard reports of pages disappearing and reappearing before, so I Googled the problem. I figured out you might be able to get it to work by using https:// instead of http:// in the URL. So I did, and it worked. However, this meant that for every internal Facebook link I clicked on, I had to copy and paste the URL, and put that little “s” in, because Facebook links are http://. Annoying. Can’t they code this thing right? Why would anyone want to use Facebook if it didn’t work half the time?

Still, I continued to use it, because I thought I could make it work. Shortly afterward, Facebook decided that it wanted to make my personal posts more private public, and forced its new privacy policy on me. I knew before that Facebook’s privacy policies weren’t very good, and I never felt comfortable sharing information on the Internet without knowing who exactly would be able to see it. So, for awhile, I just didn’t log on.

I eventually decided to fix my privacy settings in Facebook’s labyrinthine inner workings, and continued using it despite that. Then Facebook decided that it didn’t look good enough, so it changed the way it looked. Except the new look, though different, wasn’t any better. It was still hard to find things, still confusing to use, still lacking rhyme or reason to its UI.

And then there were the things people posted. I wasn’t interested in the minute details of everyone’s life. I wasn’t interested in gossip. It bored me real fast. It felt so juvenile, like high school all over again. Sure, it’s nice to know what people are up to, but you don’t have to give me every single detail! I was just drowning in all the noise. There was barely any signal, just noise. It made it hard to reply to other people’s posts, and hard to get replies on my own, defeating the purpose of “social networking”. I was spending too much time just trying to find the signal, all while trying to fight the site’s poor interface.

During my constant frustration, not to mention waste of time, I started thinking to myself, “Why am I using this thing?” “Why am I wasting my time on this site?” I asked myself that, and I reminded myself that I started using Facebook “because everybody else wanted me to use it”. I never liked doing things just because they’re “cool”. I like doing things because I like doing things.

So I decided I needed to de-friend Facebook. I logged out one last time a few days ago. I’ll see if I feel like returning in a month or so. Sure, it’s cool to be friends with the cool kid, but the relationship is shallow and it only makes you feel bad in the end. I’d rather be friends with somebody whose company I truly enjoy – wouldn’t you? It’s interesting what comes up as the first result in Google if you do a search for “why I quit”. It’s not smoking, it’s not dope, it’s… well, do it and find out!

Oh, and the fact that yesterday, Facebook was granted a patent for the news feed doesn’t make me like Facebook either. We’ve had “news feeds” since Lincoln used telegraph office in the war department to keep track of the war effort. You can’t tell me the news feed is really anything new right now.

I don’t care if Facebook is cool or not. I wish another social network would come along and kill Facebook. I hate Facebook. There, I said it. That made me feel better.

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Richard Nixon created President’s Day in 1971. Photo courtesy whitehouse.gov

As a Lincoln fan and somebody who loves history, President’s Day has always striked me as the most useless holiday on the calendar. Why do we need such a generic holiday on the calendar? Is there any reason why all of our presidents should be placed on equal footing? C’mon, you can’t seriously say that James Buchanan, Richard Nixon, and Millard Fillmore are on the same footing as Lincoln and Washington.

What’s more, President’s Day (which is the 3rd Monday in February) can never fall on Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th) or Washington’s Birthday (February 22nd). Talk about useless! No wonder so many states and localities (Illinois included) make a separate holiday for Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday.

All President’s Day is really known for is stupid sales at big box stores. I don’t know of any celebrations that happen on President’s Day. I really wish our Federal Government would care more about our history and separate it out back into Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th) and Washington’s Birthday (February 22nd) the way it was intended to be. President’s Day is a “compromise” that doesn’t satisfy anyone. You wouldn’t celebrate the 4th of July on any other day, so why should we celebrate the contributions of Lincoln and Washington on a holiday not named for them that can’t occur on either of their birthdays?

Abraham Lincoln (Picture Copyright © 2009 Chris Umhoefer, Lincoln Apparel)

Maybe we should call President’s Day Richard Nixon Day. The seedy history of President’s Day begins with him, when he decided that in 1971 that he was just as worthy as Lincoln and Washington and that Federal government workers only needed one day off in February. So he merged the two into the holiday now known as “President’s Day”. Three years earlier, in 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act established that most federal holidays would fall on a Monday, except for days like, oh, Christmas (oh, how convenient and important to our nation’s history). This is why, for instance, MLK Day (established in 1986) is on a Monday and not normally on his birthday (January 15th) either.

George Washington (courtesy whitehouse.gov)

Prior to 1971, Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday had been commonly celebrated for 105 years. Lincoln’s Birthday was first widely celebrated in 1866, after Lincoln’s assassination, and Washington’s Birthday was commonly celebrated during Lincoln’s time. I wish they were celebrated widely today, but instead we’re left with the mundane but “convenient” President’s Day, which contributes to our nation’s already high historical illiteracy rate and doesn’t really celebrate anything.

We as a nation need to be more aware of the contributions of great figures in our history, and why their contributions are relevant to today, and President’s Day and the Uniform Monday Holiday Act don’t help. They hurt, and de-emphasize our history. For the sake of our nation and our history, we need to make Lincoln’s Birthday and Washington’s Birthday federal holidays again, and have them fall on their actual birthdays.

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Here’s a schedule of events being held for Lincoln’s 201st Birthday in Springfield. I plan to be at as many of them as I can!

I normally attend the Painter Lectures at the Lincoln Home and the Lincoln Symposium at the Old State Capitol. This year I’m definitely attending the special artifact display at the Museum on the 11th, and possibly the penny unveiling earlier that day. The discussion on the 14th at the Hilton also sounds interesting since it involves emancipation, a Lincoln subject I have always been interested in. I’ll probably be at the discussion at the Lincoln Home on the 13th as well.

I’ll be wearing my Lincoln T-shirts throughout the celebration (one of which is pictured above, which is a limited edition T-shirt for the Bicentennial). You can find them at the Lincoln Apparel website and at Springfield Novelties and Gifts in historic downtown Springfield on 6th Street, between Monroe and Adams.

Happy Lincoln’s Birthday!

Thursday, the 11th (Lincoln’s Birthday Eve):
* Unveiling of the new, redesigned Lincoln penny at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, beginning at 9:30 in the morning. Thousands of collectors are expected. The penny is being redesigned for the Lincoln Bicentennial; tomorrow is the last day Lincoln will be 200 years old.
* Artifact Vigil at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum: Several Lincoln artifacts will be on display, including a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, the inkwell Lincoln used to write his First Inaugural Address, the original clock from the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices, and more. Admission to this special event will be free after 5:30. There will also be presentations in the Union Theater at 6:30 and 8:15. The event will run until 10:00 pm.
* At the Vachel Lindsay Home at 6, Marc Aronson, author of "A History Beyond Black and White", will be giving a presentation.

Lincoln’s 201st Birthday, Friday, February 12th:
* This year’s theme for the annual Painter Lectures at the Lincoln Home is "Election of a President". It runs in the morning from 9 until noon. It is free.
* There will be a luncheon at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (costing $25) featuring author Richard Fox at noon.
* The annual Abraham Lincoln Symposium at the Old State Capitol will be from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. This year’s theme is "Lincoln’s Critics". This event is free.
* The annual banquet will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. It will be easier to get into than last year, when President Obama attended. It costs $85, and Harold Holzer will be the speaker.
* At Lincoln Land Community College, John Lupton will give a talk at 9 on Lincoln forgeries. It is free.
* Also at Lincoln Land, there will be an exhibit of Lincoln posters.
* There will be children’s storytelling programs (featuring Springfield Lincoln presenter Fritz Klein) at the Old State Capitol at 10 and at the Lincoln Home at 1.
* A time capsule featuring items from the Lincoln Bicentennial will be filled at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum during a brief ceremony at 1.
* The annual American Legion pilgrimage to the Tomb will be at 10:30.

Saturday, February 13th:
* The VFW will hold a pilgrimage to the Lincoln Tomb at 2:30.
* There will be a presentation entitled "Working for the Father: Lincoln’s Hired Help and Faith Communities" at the Lincoln Home at 1. It is free.

Sunday, February 14th:
* There will be a presentation at the Hilton entitled Emancipation and the Dream of Freedom: From Slavery to the White House at 1.

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Yay! I have all 88 of the pictures now. I took the last one on Monday, and the nice days at the beginning of last week enabled me to take many of the remaining 23 pictures. I took over 7000 pictures while working on this project. Of those, only 262 turned out good enough for me to use for this project (for some of the 88 shots, more than one turned out good – but it’s nice to have a choice in case something doesn’t work out right). Now comes the task of updating my 80s music database and making the CDs themselves. I also want to make a photo tour of Springfield with the pictures – they provide a good portrait of Mr. Lincoln’s home town during the year of his Bicentennial.

I’m glad I was able to complete the project this year. It’s hard work, doing lots of walking around downtown, through historic neighborhoods, and crisscrossing the city to get pictures in neighborhoods on different sides of town. And sometimes it can be frustrating, when you don’t get a shot and then you have to take it again, or when the weather doesn’t cooperate. But it was fun, and it was worth it in the end.

I originally intended to show Springfield in the summer, and I tried to keep that theme as much as I could, but because it lasted so far into October some fall color crept into the later pictures. Still looks neat, though. Perhaps in a subsequent year, I will capture all of the shots in the summer.

The last 23 pictures are:

* Skyline from the 500 block of East Madison Street: This picture was taken from the top level of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum parking ramp. You can get a beautiful view of the city from here. The picture is aimed down 6th Street towards the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, where you can see the entrances of both. You can also see some of the buildings on the east side of 6th Street, such as the Illinois Building and the Springfield Marine Bank, and the Hilton and President Abraham Lincoln hotels.

* 900 block of South 2nd Street, Looking South from Canedy Street: This shot represents the Aristocracy Hill neighborhood, just to the south of downtown. This neighborhood contains many Lincoln era houses, including some on this block, and is a diverse, though upscale neighborhood. Technically, the Vachel Lindsay Home and the Lincoln Home are both part of this neighborhood as well. The neighborhood was named Aristocracy Hill because the Governor’s Mansion is located within it.

* 500 block of South Walnut Street, Looking South from Governor Street: This shot represents the Pasfield House neighborhood, just to the west of downtown. Most of the homes in this neighborhood were built just after Lincoln’s time. It is an upscale neighborhood containing large houses and big trees. There is a small Civil War museum on the right (west) side of the street, at the Governor Street intersection.

* Lincoln Totem Pole: So, what’s this doing outside the Illinois State Museum? After Lincoln’s assassination, the Tongass tribe of Indians in southeast Alaska adopted the Lincoln story as tribal legend. The story goes that when Alaska was purchased and became a U.S. territory, slaves among the Indian tribes there were freed by Lincoln’s acts as President. To commemorate the event, the tribe erected a totem pole in his honor. The original pole is now in a museum in Juneau, Alaska (after having been moved from Saxman, Alaska), and a copy is in the Illinois State Museum. This one outside the museum is a fiberglass replica of the totem pole. It is 50 feet tall and the carved statue of Lincoln on the top is 5 feet 10 inches tall (6 inches short of Lincoln’s 6 foot 4 inch height). I suspect a lot of people don’t notice this pole (it’s by the parking lot, near the Spring and Edwards intersection), but it goes to show how Lincoln is remembered by many different cultures.

* Skyline from Douglas Park: Through the trees at the southeast corner of this large northwest side park, at Walnut Street and Madison Street, you can see the downtown skyline, which is particularly beautiful during the afternoon and evening. I took the picture during this time. The Hilton, the State Capitol and the Ridgely Building are visible from here.

* 1500 block of South 4th Street, Looking North from Spruce Street: This shot represents the Near South neighborhood, to the south of Aristocracy Hill. This is a middle class neighborhood that was developed around the turn of the 20th century. It has big trees and a diverse range of housing styles, including brick apartment buildings which were a new style of living at the time. The east-west streets in this neighborhood are all named after trees.

* 1800 block of South State Street, Looking South: This narrow tree-lined brick street is located on the southwest side. It contains older, mostly one and a half story middle class homes built in the early 20th century. I’m unsure of the neighborhood name, but this atypical typical block is representative of many neighborhoods in this section of town built at around the same time. There is no cross street dividing the 1700 and 1800 blocks.

* 1400 block of South Lincoln Avenue, Looking North from Leland Avenue: This tree-lined brick street is in one of Springfield’s rich neighborhoods, just to the south of Washington Park, on the west side of the city. Large, old houses and mansions are common in this neighborhood. The neighborhood was developed at around the turn of the 20th century. This shot looks north towards Washington Park, visible in the distance.

* Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon: This is in the western portion of Washington Park, a very large 280 acre west side park. It is one of the largest carillons in the world. It contains 67 bells and is over 12 stories tall. Concerts are held here during the summer and at Christmas time. The carillon was built in 1962.

* Washington Park Gazebo: This is in the eastern portion of Washington Park, near the Lincoln Avenue/South Grand Avenue intersection. It’s surrounded by lots of trees, and a grassy open area. Events are sometimes held here.

* Lake Springfield: This 8-square-mile lake is located on the southeastern edge of the city. The southern and eastern shores of the lake are outside of the city and are still largely undeveloped. The lake is surrounded by parks, and it has beaches, a zoo, and a large nature center (Lincoln Memorial Gardens) along its shores. This shot was taken from Spaulding Dam on the north shore of the lake. It was a nice day to take a picture of the lake, and I got a boater in the picture.

* Skyline from the 800 block of East Madison Street: Taken facing the Old State Capitol, you can also see the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, the State Capitol, the Myers Building, and the Illinois Building from here. I think the fall color made this shot more vibrant than it would have been if it was taken in the summer.

* Lincoln Statue on Lincoln Tomb Upper Deck: This is the oldest Lincoln statue in Springfield. It was dedicated in 1874, when the Lincoln Tomb was finished. It depicts Abraham Lincoln emancipating the slaves, with his arm outstretched and holding a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. Since one of the things that made me a Lincoln admirer is emancipation, it is one of my favorite Lincoln statues in the city. Because the statue is up so high, you can see more detail in the picture than you can with your eyes alone.

* Governor’s Mansion: This beautiful Georgian mansion, located on the block bounded by 4th, 5th, Jackson, and Edwards Streets, was built in 1855, and is the 3rd largest governor’s mansion in the country. The grounds of the mansion are beautifully landscaped with trees and fountains. Joel Matteson was the first governor to reside here. Lincoln attended many events here. The mansion is open for tours and it contains several Lincoln-related artifacts, including paintings and a sculpture.

* Brinkerhoff Home: This is a big, beautiful house on the north end near Lincoln Park, on the Springfield College campus. It was built in 1869. The home is surrounded by lots of trees and sits at the top of a big hill. Events related to Springfield history occur here.

* Lincoln Tomb: The final resting place of Abraham Lincoln. It is located in Oak Ridge Cemetery, a large, beautiful, peaceful 365-acre cemetery on the north end. It is the largest cemetery in Illinois and the second most visited in the country. The Tomb itself is 117 feet tall. It was designed by Larkin Mead of Vermont. Outside is the famous bust where people love to rub Lincoln’s nose, and it contains a statue of Lincoln and four statues depicting the Civil War on its upper deck. There are 50 state shields carved into the tomb, in the order in which they came into the Union. Inside the tomb are 9 “statuettes” of Abraham Lincoln, which are all replicas of Lincoln statues elsewhere. In addition to Mr. Lincoln, Mary and the Lincolns’ sons Willie, Tad, and Eddie are buried here. Robert is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

* 1200 block of North Monument Avenue, Looking North from North Grand Avenue: This shot represents the Oak Ridge neighborhood on the north end, north of Enos Park. It is a middle class neighborhood built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This street is a tree-lined boulevard with historic streetlights and brick landscaping that leads into Oak Ridge Cemetery.

* Inside the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices: This picture was taken in the law office of Lincoln and Herndon in the back of the Tinsley Building on the third floor. This office was used by Lincoln from about 1849 to 1853.

* It Will Become All One Thing: At the intersection of 1st Street and North Grand Avenue on the north end, there is a small park with benches and a large wooden sign with this unifying quote from Abraham Lincoln’s House Divided speech. The sign is visible as you are going south down Monument towards North Grand Avenue (away from Oak Ridge Cemetery). The area around this small, but beautiful, park contains many big trees, which are visible in the background.

* State Capitol Rotunda: Taken inside the State Capitol facing straight up into the rotunda from the 1st floor. Pretty, isn’t it?

* Inside the Old State Capitol: This picture was taken inside Representatives Hall where Lincoln served in the Legislature. The desk with the hat on it is where Lincoln sat. The desk itself isn’t the actual desk that Lincoln sat at, that is on display in the north side of the room (not in the photo). Lincoln gave his famous “House Divided” speech (among others) underneath the big portrait of George Washington in the center of the room. Today, this room and the Old State Capitol itself is often used for Lincoln-related events. The entire Old State Capitol is open for tours.

* Inside Lincoln’s Home: I had to take two tours of the home to get this shot properly. It can be difficult when you have to stay at the pace of the tour and there are lots of people on the tour. It was taken inside the formal parlor on the north side of Lincoln’s home, which was used for formal events, like when the Republican delegation from Chicago came and told him he had won the 1860 Republican nomination for President. Many of the items in this room (like the couch, and the portable writing desk) are items Lincoln owned.

* Lincoln Family Statue in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum Plaza: The ceremonial 88th shot. I took it on Monday. I always do this one last, it seems like a fitting tribute to Lincoln and Springfield for finishing the project. This life-size statue of Lincoln and his family (including Mary, Willie, Tad, and Robert) inside the central plaza of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is a popular picture-taking spot for tourists. Eddie is not included in the statue since we do not know what he looked like. Behind the Lincolns, a replica of the White House is visible.

The final 23 shots:

Skyline from the 500 block of East Madison Street	900 block of South 2nd Street, Looking South from Canedy Street
500 block of South Walnut Street, Looking South from Governor Street	Lincoln Totem Pole
Skyline from Douglas Park	1500 block of South 4th Street, Looking North from Spruce Street
1800 block of South State Street, Looking South	1400 block of South Lincoln Avenue, Looking North from Leland Avenue
Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon	Washington Park Gazebo
Lake Springfield	Skyline from the 800 block of East Madison Street
Lincoln Statue on Lincoln Tomb Upper Deck	Governor's Mansion
Brinkerhoff Home	Lincoln Tomb
1200 block of North Monument Avenue, Looking North from North Grand Avenue	Inside the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices
It Will Become All One Thing	State Capitol Rotunda
Inside the Old State Capitol	Inside Lincoln's Home
Lincoln Family Statue in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum Plaza

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This is as of Saturday, it doesn’t include anything taken this week. I still intend to finish the project and complete all 88 pictures, a goal towards which I have made significant progress this week. The weather here most of October hasn’t made this project easy (lots of cloudy days) but I’m doing what I can. As soon as I sort out the pictures from the past few days (which had almost perfect weather) I’ll make another post.

The 21 new pictures since the last post on this are:

* Union Square Park: This downtown park, popular with tourists, is across 6th Street from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, which you can see in the distance. It takes up almost an entire city block; Union Station takes up the northern portion of the block, the park takes up the rest. Many Lincoln-related events take place at this park.

* Lincoln Square Apartments: Luxury apartments in a great downtown location. I toured one of these once on the downtown Upper Story Tour, and they are very nice. Maybe someday I’ll live here. The building was built in 1984, though it looks much older than that. It emulates its historic downtown surroundings, as if it’s been there since Lincoln’s time. I took the photo from the 5th/Monroe intersection and captured some of the vibrancy surrounding it.

* (Benjamin) Edwards Place: This mansion in the Enos Park neighborhood is the oldest home still on its original foundation in Springfield. It was built in 1833. It was home to Benjamin Edwards, Ninian Edwards’ brother. The Lincolns were married at Ninian Edwards’ home which was on the 500 block of South 2nd Street where the Centennial/Howlett Building is now. However, the Lincolns visited the Benjamin Edwards home many times and the home was a focal point for activity during Lincoln’s time. The home is open to the public for tours and the Springfield Art Association (which owns the home) occupies an annex.

* Lincoln Park Pavilion: This is in Lincoln Park, a large, beautiful Northend park in a historic neighborhood encompassing over 150 acres. The pavilion in this park looks like an old stone country home on top of a big hill. It is located in the southern portion of the park, and you can see it from the little park road once you get into the park from the southeast entrance near 5th and Black. I took the photo from the grass “staircase” across the park lagoon from the pavilion. I wanted to capture the rural feel of the pavilion in this picture.

* Lincoln Bust at Lincoln Tomb: This is the one where everybody wants to rub his nose. It’s supposed to bring you good luck, and Lincoln’s nose is all shiny from all the rubbing. The bust was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, who also did busts of Lincoln on Mt. Rushmore, in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and in the U.S. Capitol. I took this photo at sunset since I feel it captures the mood of the Lincoln Tomb nicely.

* 400 block of South 8th Street, Looking South from Capitol Avenue: This historic tree-lined street is in the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, preserved to its 1860 appearance. The Lincoln Home itself is visible down the street to your left. It was very difficult to get this shot without people in it.

* Lincoln School: I thought I’d do a school for this project, since a lot of Springfield’s school buildings are historic and have character. I chose this one since not only is it historic, it’s named after Lincoln. It’s located in the Pioneer Park neighborhood. The picture was shot from the 12th/Capitol intersection. This is the only shot in the project that I did on a cloudy day, but I think the clouds made it interesting.

* 700 block of North 5th Street, Looking North from Miller Street: This shot represents the Enos Park neighborhood, a diverse neighborhood just north of downtown. This neighborhood contains many Lincoln-era homes and lots of big trees and large, old colorful houses. There’s lots of character in this neighborhood. This block contains some beautiful old rowhouses, called the Enos Flats, visible on the right side of the street. Also visible are a couple of large brick homes, and a mixture of other historic homes.

* Lincoln Park Bridge: This stone bridge in Lincoln Park is over a century old. It spans the park lagoon, which contains beautiful waterfalls and fountains. It leads into a forest, where a path leads up a giant “grass staircase”. I took a picture of the bridge from opposite the staircase, with the forest visible in the distance behind the lagoon. The bridge has “LINCOLN” and “PARK” carved into the posts at this end (the end opposite the “grass staircase”), visible in the picture.

* State Fairgrounds Main Entrance: This is on 11th Street, at its intersection with Sangamon Avenue. There’s a large statue of Lincoln as a railsplitter just inside the gate. This isn’t my favorite Lincoln sculpture in Springfield (I always thought it was kind of tacky), but it’s still a representation of Lincoln and deserves to be included. I love getting the evening light on this shot – it’s as if the fair is about to begin.

* Adams Street Mall, looking West from 6th Street: Also known as the Old State Capitol Plaza, this busy brick pedestrian mall, which forms the south side of the square, is often used for outdoor events. I took the photo during one of these. The shops and restaurants that line the Adams Street Mall are visible to the left.

* 200 block of South 6th Street, Looking South from Adams Street: This busy downtown block is lined with a variety of shops and restaurants. The Tinsley Building, which contains the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices, is visible on the right. To capture the vibrant urban feel I took the picture with people walking down the street.

* 1100 block of South Grand Avenue East, Looking East from 11th Street: This is in Old South Town, a quirky “mini-downtown” district on the near east side that is currently being revitalized. The district is about one mile southeast of downtown. The South Town theater marquee in this district is the oldest theater marquee in Illinois, dating from the 1910s.

* Skyline from 5th and Capitol: The harmony and contrast between nature and the city is visible in this shot. Through the trees, you can see buildings that punctuate the Springfield skyline. Down below, you can see the street, and people walking along it.

* 100 block of North 6th Street, Looking North from Washington Street: The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is the edifice that occupies much of the right (east) side of this block, towards the end of it. On the west side of this block, there are shops and restaurants. This block is often busy with tourists and other people milling about. I tried to capture some of this in the shot.

* Skyline from Comer Cox Park: This is a large 40-acre park on the east side, along M.L. King Drive between Capitol Avenue and Washington Street. You can see parts of the skyline from it. The Pioneer Park neighborhood lies between this park and downtown.

* Vachel Lindsay Home: This Lincoln-era home on the 600 block of South 5th Street was home to Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay, who lived here from 1879 until 1931. The home is restored to its appearance during that time. This is also known as the C.M. Smith home, for the name of Lincoln’s brother-in-law, who lived here during Lincoln’s time. The home is owned by the state and is open to the public.

* First Presbyterian Church: This is the church that the Lincolns attended (though Lincoln was never an official member of the church). When Lincoln lived in Springfield, the church was located at 3rd and Washington. It was moved to this location at 7th and Capitol in the 1870s. The new church building incorporates some elements from the old one, though (such as the stained-glass windows). The pew the Lincolns rented is on display here.

* Pasfield House: This large historic house in the Pasfield House neighborhood, just to the west of the State Capitol, functions as a B&B now. It’s not Lincoln-era (it was built in 1896), but it’s still beautiful. As a nice added touch, there is a large color cutout of Abraham Lincoln waving at you from the front porch. I love it and I made sure to capture it in the picture.

* Lincoln Tower Apartments: This large apartment building is conveniently located near the State Capitol. Even though it’s a more modern building, I felt the need to include it as it is another major “downtown living” apartment complex.

* State Library: This beautiful building on the northeast corner of 2nd and Capitol is located across the street from the State Capitol. It houses the State Archives (different from the collection that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library has, which is the Illinois State Historical Library). The names along the top of the building are the names of prominent Illinois authors, writers, and educators.

The 21 new pictures:

Union Square Park	Lincoln Square Apartments
Edwards Place	Lincoln Park Pavilion
Lincoln Bust at Lincoln Tomb	400 block of South 8th Street, Looking South from Capitol Avenue
Lincoln School	700 block of North 5th Street, Looking North from Miller Street
Lincoln Park Bridge	State Fairgrounds Main Entrance
Adams Street Mall, Looking West from 6th Street	200 block of South 6th Street, Looking South from Adams Street
1100 block of South Grand Avenue East, Looking East from 11th Street	Skyline from 5th and Capitol
100 block of North 6th Street, Looking North from Washington Street	Skyline from Comer Cox Park
Vachel Lindsay Home	First Presbyterian Church
Pasfield House	Lincoln Tower Apartments
State Library

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On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered a “few appropriate remarks” at the newly-created national cemetery at Gettysburg. The speech contained only 272 words and lasted maybe 3 minutes, far shy of the main speaker Edward Everett’s speech, which lasted 2 hours. Many people attending the event did not realize that President Lincoln had given a speech until after he had given it.

However, the speech was soon recognized as a masterpiece. It became an eloquent embodiment of the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality, and of the sacrifices made to maintain, and improve, those things. Down through the ages, its words have been interpreted countless different ways and for many different purposes. It has been memorized by countless schoolchildren, and I can recite it from memory.

Within my lifetime, the words of the Gettysburg Address have been used on both the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and at the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. It’s been used in advertising and in political campaigns and speeches, including Obama’s. The immortal and multicultural nature of the Gettysburg Address inspired me to create this T-shirt.

I made each of the 272 words of the speech (in red on the T-shirt) a different font, to reflect different eras and different cultures. I spent many hours tweaking the fonts to get them to play well together and look nice. I added this on top of a large blue picture of Abraham Lincoln, along the right side of his face. The picture of Lincoln is based off a portrait of him taken on November 8, 1863, 11 days before he gave the Gettysburg Address. I felt it was fitting and proper to use a portrait of Lincoln that was taken at around the same time as the address.

As finishing touches, I added Lincoln’s signature, the date (November 19, 1863), and the title, “Address Delivered at the Cemetery at Gettysburg”. This is from the so-called “Bliss copy” of the address, the last revision Lincoln made of the address and the text most commonly used as the standard text for the address.

Now you can contribute to the immortality of the address – and of the man who gave it – by wearing them both on a T-shirt. Neat, isn’t it? Check out the Lincoln Apparel website and my Etsy shop for my new Lincoln "Immortal Words at Gettysburg" T-shirts. The T-shirts are screen printed, and they are 100% cotton and are made right here in the U.S.A.

Here’s some more fun facts about the Gettysburg Address:

* There are only 10 sentences in the Gettysburg Address.
* Lincoln likely spent several weeks working on his address. Lincoln was known to take his time writing speeches, polishing them until they were “perfect”.
* No, Lincoln didn’t write it on the back of an envelope on the train to Gettysburg. The ride was bumpy and it was only 70 minutes long. In addition, none of the surviving copies appear on an envelope and the earliest known copy is on White House stationery.
* Lincoln likely did finish working on his address at the Wills House, where he stayed in Gettysburg the night before the speech.
* There are 5 different surviving copies of the address in Lincoln’s hand known today. These are known as the Nicolay, Hay, Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss copies (in that order). They all differ slightly. Supposedly there is a 6th copy (the delivery copy) of the address in Lincoln’s hand but it has not been found.
* The Everett copy is the one that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum here in Springfield has.
* The Nicolay and Hay copies are at the Library of Congress. The Bancroft copy is at Cornell University, and the Bliss copy is in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House (which was Lincoln’s office during his time).
* The words “under God” were added in the Everett copy.
* The last three copies were made as souvenirs. The Bliss copy was made because the Bancroft copy did not fit the format the printer was going to use properly. The dates and the titles were added in these.

Enjoy the new T-shirts and have some Lincoln fun!

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If you’re from Springfield, chances are, you’ve heard about the issue with putting high speed rail on the 10th Street corridor (as opposed to 3rd Street, where the trains now run). If you’re not from here, basically, the city wants to do away with the 3rd Street railroad corridor entirely (which runs through downtown) and place all rail traffic on the 10th Street corridor (on the eastern edge of downtown).

Missed in the 3rd Street / 10th Street high speed rail issue here in Springfield is the Lincoln Depot, at 10th and Monroe (pictured). Abraham Lincoln used this station often, most notably when he left Springfield to assume the Presidency. It’s currently like a small museum. I think it would be neat if it could become an actual passenger train station again, so that you could get on and off the train where Lincoln did. It would become the only station that Lincoln used that would also be in contemporary use as a train station.

The city plans a multimodal transportation hub (a place where intercity train and bus service would link up with local mass transit) located along the 10th Street tracks and the Lincoln Depot could become the centerpiece of the plan. Currently, the State Journal Register owns the Depot and a parking lot to the west at 9th and Monroe. They can barely keep the Depot open from April to August, and it is closed the rest of the year. If it becomes a train station, it would be open year round, and bring more attention to the site. I can envision the adjacent 9th/Monroe parking lot as a bus transfer center, and the State Journal Register parking that’s in this lot now could be consolidated into the lot at 10th and Capitol. If more room is needed than this for the multimodal transportation facility, perhaps something could be done with the currently vacant warehouses on Monroe between 10th and 11th. They could be demolished or reused/rehabilitated as necessary. As far as I know, they are not Lincoln era structures.

One interesting thing about the 3rd Street tracks is that those are the tracks that Lincoln’s funeral train arrived on when it arrived in Springfield. It’s kind of creepy how those are the tracks used right now for passenger rail. If we move passenger rail to 10th Street we have the opportunity to allow tourists and residents to walk in the same footsteps Lincoln did in his travels. Wouldn’t that be neat?

Map of the Lincoln Depot area, showing my idea:

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I have 44 of the 88 pictures so far. (Not including anything I got today or yesterday.) At least it rained last weekend, so now I can go take some of the residential shots without getting brown grass. This week’s weather so far has been cloudy, though, which has made it difficult for me to take the photos I want. I’ve also been working hard on my Etsy shop. I might not get this done until sometime in early October now. I thought I’d be finished by now. But of course, I’m still going to finish it, whatever it takes.

The 9 new pictures:

* Lincoln Home: This upper middle class house on the northeast corner of 8th and Jackson was the only home Lincoln ever owned. He lived here from 1844 to 1861 (when he left to be inaugurated as President). He probably spent the best years of his life here. The house was built in 1839 by the Rev. Charles Dresser, who also presided over the Lincolns’ wedding in 1842. When Lincoln bought the house, it was only 1 1/2 stories tall, and they added onto it over the years. The home was given to the state of Illinois in 1887 by Lincoln’s son Robert and then (along with the 4-block-square area surrounding it) to the National Park Service in 1972. One of the stipulations Robert made in the transfer of the home to the government is that it must always be free to tour, and that of course is still true today.

* Skyline from the 400 block of North 11th Street: If you recognize this photo, it’s because I used it (well, a version from a past year) to make my blog header image. I love the pretty lights and the urban feel. You can see the Hilton, the Convention Center, the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, the Horace Mann Building, the State Capitol and the Myers Building from here.

* 600 block of East Capitol Avenue, Looking West from 7th Street: This is my favorite point along Capitol Avenue to take a streetscape shot looking directly towards the Capitol. To the right is the First Presbyterian Church, which the Lincolns attended (albeit not at this location), and visible down the street are restaurants and shops.

* 600 block of East Monroe Street, Looking West from 7th Street: This busy block has the Federal Building on the left, and a state office building on the right, and restaurants in the distance. For some reason, the traffic pattern at the 7th/Monroe intersection makes it tricky to take this streetscape shot.

* 600 block of East Adams Street, Looking West from 7th Street: Taken from the north sidewalk of the street instead of in the middle, because I like it that way. This vibrant block connects the hotels with the Adams Street Mall and the 5th and 6th Street corridors in the distance. It is lined with shops and restaurants and is one of the main corridors in downtown Springfield. The Illinois Building is visible on the right in the distance.

* West Side of the Square: Like the South Side of the Square shot, this one features the sun shining on the buildings. Which means that it was taken in the morning, and I’m not a morning person, so this one was little difficult to get. But I like the feel of this picture, somehow calming, yet urban, and vibrant. The tall building on the far right is the Myers Building, and Lincoln’s last law office was in the spot where this building now is. (The Myers Building was built in 1886.) The Chatterton Building, the 2nd building from the left, is a Lincoln-era building that housed a jewelry store where Lincoln bought Mary Todd’s wedding ring.

* Old State Capitol: This was the tallest building in Illinois when it was completed in 1839. Lincoln served his last two terms in the State Legislature here, and it was here that he gave his famous “House Divided” speech. This building remained the State Capitol until 1876 when state government outgrew the structure, thus necessitating the need for the New State Capitol.

* View from the 800 block of East Jefferson Street: While walking to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum one day, I noticed that there was a point on this block where you could see the domes of both the old and the new State Capitols, and where the domes of each of the State Capitols both have the same apparent size. This is a shot of this, viewed through the columns of the Horace Mann building on this block, and the trees on its grounds.

* State Capitol: This is the tallest building in the city, at 405 feet high. It is so large it is impossible to get the whole thing in, so I just got the dome. The building is often referred to as the “New State Capitol” to distinguish it from the old one, even though it was completed in 1876. This building is the State Capitol building today, and it is located where 1st Street and Capitol Avenue would intersect if they ran that far.

The 9 new pics:

Lincoln Home	Skyline from the 400 block of North 11th Street
600 block of East Capitol Avenue, Looking West from 7th Street	600 block of East Monroe Street, Looking West from 7th Street
600 block of East Adams Street, Looking West from 7th Street	West Side of the Square
Old State Capitol	View from the 800 block of East Jefferson Street
State Capitol

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Yay! I finally have my new Lincoln T-shirts I blogged about earlier available now. I put them up on my website, Lincoln Apparel, today, after taking pictures and writing descriptions and Web pages for them. I’m working on getting them up in my Etsy store, too. It took a lot longer than I thought, but they turned out really well and I am pleased with them. They have the design pictured to the right, which I created, screen printed onto them, and they are available in blue, red, and black. They are 100% cotton T-shirts and are union made in the USA. They are comfortable and they look great!

The design is entitled, “Back to Springfield”. I wanted to portray Lincoln as if he came back to his hometown for his 200th birthday this year. I always thought it’d be neat if Lincoln was around to witness the 200th year of his life. This inspired me to base the design on the last known photographic portrait of him taken on February 5, 1865. To represent Lincoln coming back to Springfield, I wanted him to be standing in front of a recognizable modern Springfield landmark he would be proud of, so I chose his museum. Since Lincoln is a figure to be celebrated, particularly during the year of his Bicentennial, I wanted to create a celebratory mood. The fireworks idea just kind of came to me after that and after all the other pieces fell into place.

This was my first full-color design, so I didn’t know how well it was going to turn out at the beginning. When I got done with it, I knew it was going to be awesome. Because this shirt turned out so well and has been such a great success so far, I plan on keeping the picture used in this design around for next year, but next year’s shirt will mention something other than the Bicentennial, so get yours while they last!

Enjoy the shirts!

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