Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum documents the life of the 16th U. S. President, Abraham Lincoln, the course of the American Civil War. Combining traditional scholarship with 21st-century showmanship techniques, the museum ranks as one of the most visited presidential libraries, its library, in addition to housing an extensive collection on Lincoln houses the collection of the Illinois State Historical Library, founded by the state in 1889. The library and museum is located in the state capital of Springfield, is overseen as an agency of state government, it is not affiliated with the U. S. National Archives and its system of libraries; the museum contains life-size dioramas of Lincoln's boyhood home, areas of the White House, the presidential box at Ford's Theatre, the settings of key events in Lincoln's life, as well as pictures and other memorabilia. Original artifacts are changed from time to time, but the collection includes items like the original hand written Gettysburg Address, a signed Emancipation Proclamation, his glasses and shaving mirror, Mary Todd Lincoln's music box, items from her White House china, her wedding dress, more.
The permanent exhibits are divided into two different stages of the president's life, called "Journey One: The Pre-Presidential Years", "Journey Two: The Presidential Years", a third, the "Treasures Gallery". Temporary exhibits rotate periodically. Past exhibits have dealt with the Civil Stephen A. Douglas; as of February 2014, a collection of Annie Leibovitz's photography, including photos of Lincoln's items, is on display. One of the museum's permanent exhibits, Campaign of 1860, includes modern-style television updates on the campaign's progress from the late Meet the Press anchor Tim Russert. Another of the permanent exhibits, "The Civil War in Four Minutes," displays a large animated map which displays the changing battle lines of the Civil War in four minutes. In addition to its exhibits, the Lincoln Museum runs two special effects theater shows, Lincoln's Eyes and Ghosts of the Library; the "Under His Hat: Discovering Lincoln's Story From Primary Sources", is the home of the Lincoln Collection Digitization Project, a thematic online resource that features a 360-degree online view of his hat.
Burbank, California-based BRC Imagination Arts, led by Bob Rogers, was responsible for all of the permanent exhibits and presentations, theaters, lifelike figures and full-immersion historical settings. The Lincoln Presidential Library is a research library which houses books and artifacts related to Lincoln's life and the American Civil War. In addition to the works associated with Lincoln and his era, the library houses the collection of the Illinois State Historical Library and serves as a premier repository of books, pamphlets and other materials of historical interest pertaining to the history of the state of Illinois. While the library is open to the public, its rare collection is non-circulating. A reading room, named the Steve Neal Reading Room in honor of Illinois historical journalist Steve Neal, is open to the public; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum was administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, until it was made into an independent state agency in 2017.
Historian and former director of several presidential libraries, Richard Norton Smith, served as the museum and library's Founding Executive Director. In 2010, Eileen R. Mackevich, MBE, was appointed director by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. Mackevich served as the Executive Director of the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, she was active as a broadcast journalist and talk show host on Chicago public radio, was the co-founder of the Chicago Humanities Festival. Mackevich's objectives were to raise money, attract more international interest, she served until in 2015. In 2016, Governor Bruce Rauner appointed Alan Lowe as director of the library, he served as Director of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas before accepting his position at the ALPLM; as First Lady of Illinois, Lura Lynn Ryan became a major fundraiser and the Library's first chairwoman. She launched the fundraising for the library by raising $250,000. Ryan organized a program in which Illinois schoolchildren collected pennies for the construction of the presidential library, which raised $47,000 dollars.
Ryan was appointed to the 14-member Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives to commemorate the 200th birthday of former U. S. President Abraham Lincoln in 2009, she served on the commission from 2001 to 2010. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in Springfield, Illinois, in the historic downtown section, near many other Lincoln cultural sites; the presidential library opened on October 14, 2004, the museum opened on April 19, 2005. Until 1970, Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C. was designated as the "Lincoln Museum". The buildings which now house the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum are in three separate structures; each structure encompasses one city block. Two of the buildings, the museum and the library, are separated by a street and connected above the street level by an enclosed walkway; the entrance of each building features a rotunda, reflective of the dome on the Old State Capitol State Historic Site in Springfield, where Lincoln served four terms as a legislator.
Both structures were designed by the architectural firm HOK. The third building, the former Springfield Union Station, had been adapted to serve as the museum's visitor center. However, since early 2014, the station has, housed
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, located in Washington, D. C. is a United States Presidential Memorial, established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968. It is a recognized think tank, ranked among the top ten in the world. Named in honor of President Woodrow Wilson, the only President of the United States to hold a PhD, its mission is "to commemorate the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson by: providing a link between the world of ideas and the world of policy. S. and the world's top think tank for institutional collaboration. The Center was established within the Smithsonian Institution, but it has its own board of trustees, composed both of government officials and of individuals from private life appointed by the President of the United States; the Center's director and staff include scholars, librarians and support staff, responsible to the trustees for carrying out the mission of the Center. The trustees and staff are advised by a group of private citizens called the Wilson Council.
Interns undergraduate or graduate students, support the activities of visiting scholars and staff while learning the business of top-level research. Most of the Center's staff form specialized projects covering broad areas of study; these programs and projects organize and host conferences and seminars, support many kinds of research and publication on topics relevant to their areas. The Center publishes a digital magazine, the Wilson Quarterly; the Center is a public–private partnership. One-third of the Center's operating funds come annually from an appropriation from the U. S. government, the Center itself is housed in a wing of the Ronald Reagan Building, a federal office building where the Center enjoys a 30-year rent-free lease. The remainder of the Center's funding comes from foundations and contracts, individuals, endowment income, subscriptions; because of its historic reliance on congressional appropriations, the Center posts on its website a Plan for Federal Funding Hiatus. The Board of Trustees led by Chairman Frederic V. Malek, are appointed to six-year terms by the President of the United States.
Trustees serve on various committees including executive and finance, investment and investment policy. Director, CEO of the Wilson Center: Jane HarmanBoard of Directors Chairman: Frederic V. Malek and Chairman, Thayer Lodging Group, a Brookfield Property Private citizen members: Peter J. Beshar, Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Thelma Duggin, President, AnBryce Foundation Barry S. Jackson, Managing Director, The Lindsey Group and Strategic Advisor, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck David Jacobson, Former U. S. Ambassador to Canada and Vice Chair, BMO Financial Group Nathalie Rayes, Vice President of Public Affairs, Grupo Salinas Earl W. Stafford, Chief Executive Officer, The Wentworth Group, LLC Jane Watson Stetson, Philanthropist Louis Susman, Former U. S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Public members: Alex Azar, Secretary, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Elisabeth DeVos, Secretary, U. S. Department of Education David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States Carla D. Hayden, Librarian of Congress Jon Parrish Peede, Acting Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities Michael Pompeo, Secretary, U.
S. Department of State David J. Skorton, Smithsonian Institution Each year, the Woodrow Wilson Center gives out several awards recognizing members of the community who have shown an outstanding commitment to President Woodrow Wilson's dream of integrating politics and policy for the common good. Recipients fall into two award categories, those receiving the award for Public Service, those receiving the award for Corporate Citizenship. Awardees are selected by the Board, distributed at dinners benefitting the Center in different locations each year. Most of the Center's staff form specialized projects covering broad areas of study. There are 14 programs, some of which are described below. Established in 1999, the Wilson Center's Africa Program focuses on international affairs issues as affect Africa, conducts programmatic work to train and mentor rising leaders in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, facilitates meetings between the policymaking communities of Washington, D. C. and Africa.
Its current director is Monde Muyangawa. The Wilson Center's Asia Program analyzes the politics, policy and issues of the broader Asia-Pacific region, encompassing a region stretching from Afghanistan to Japan. Since its founding in 2006, the Brazil Institute has focused on analyzing and convening panels to discuss Brazilian politics and the country's global profile. Founded in 2001, the Canada Institute analyzes Canada-U. S. relations and Canada's international role as polar ice melts. The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War, seeking to integrate new sources and perspectives from the former Eastern Bloc with the historiography of the Cold War. In particular, it disseminates new information and perspectives from inaccessible sources from the former Communist world on the histor
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D. C. which opened in August 1863. It is famous for being the site of the assassination of U. S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After being shot, the fatally wounded 56-year old president was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning; the theater was used as a warehouse and office building, in 1893 part of it collapsed, causing 22 deaths. It was renovated and re-opened as a theater in 1968. During the 2000s, it was renovated again, opening on February 12, 2009, in commemoration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. A related Center for Education and Leadership museum experience opened February 12, 2012 next to Petersen House; the Petersen House and the theater are preserved together as Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service. The site was a house of worship, constructed in 1833 as the second meeting house of the First Baptist Church of Washington, with Obadiah Bruen Brown as the pastor.
In 1861, after the congregation moved to a newly built structure, John T. Ford renovated it into a theater, he first called it Ford's Athenaeum. It was destroyed by fire in 1862, was rebuilt. On April 14, 1865—just five days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House—Lincoln and his wife attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre; the famous actor John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, made his way into the presidential box and shot Lincoln. Booth jumped down to the stage, escaped through a rear door. Following the assassination, the United States Government appropriated the theater, with Congress paying Ford $88,000 in compensation, an order was issued forever prohibiting its use as a place of public amusement. Between 1866 and 1887, the theater was taken over by the U. S. military and served as a facility for the War Department with records kept on the first floor, the Library of the Surgeon General's Office on the second floor, the Army Medical Museum on the third.
In 1887, the building became a clerk's office for the War Department, when the medical departments moved out. On June 9, 1893, the front part of the building collapsed, killing 22 clerks and injuring another 68; this led some people to believe that the former church turned storeroom was cursed. The building was repaired and used as a government warehouse until 1911, it languished unused until 1918. In 1928, the building was turned over from the War Department Office to the Office of Public Buildings and Parks of the National Capital. A Lincoln museum opened on the first floor of the theater building on February 12, 1932—Lincoln's 123rd birthday. In 1933, the building was transferred to the National Park Service; the restoration of Ford's Theatre was brought about by the two decade-long lobbying efforts of Democratic National Committeeman Melvin D. Hildreth and Republican North Dakota Representative Milton Young. Hildreth first suggested to Young the need for its restoration in 1945. Through extensive lobbying of Congress, a bill was passed in 1955 to prepare an engineering study for the reconstruction of the building.
In 1964, Congress approved funds for its restoration, which began that year and was completed in 1968. On January 21, 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and 500 others dedicated the restored theater; the theater reopened on January 1968, with a gala performance. The presidential box is never occupied; the theater was again renovated during the 2000s. It has a current seating capacity of 665; the re-opening ceremony was on February 2009, which commemorated Lincoln's 200th birthday. The event featured remarks from President Barack Obama as well as appearances by Katie Couric, Kelsey Grammer, James Earl Jones, Ben Vereen, Jeffrey Wright, the President's Own Marine Band, Joshua Bell, Patrick Lundy and the Ministers of Music, Audra McDonald and Jessye Norman; the National Historic Site consisting of two contributing buildings, the theater and the Petersen House, was designated in 1932. The Ford's Theatre Museum beneath the theater contains portions of the Olroyd Collection of Lincolniana. Most renovated for a July 2009 reopening, the Museum is run through a partnership with the National Park Service and the private non-profit 501 Ford's Theatre Society.
The collection includes multiple items related to the assassination, including the Derringer pistol used to carry out the shooting, Booth's diary and the original door to Lincoln's theater box. In addition, a number of Lincoln's family items, his coat, some statues of Lincoln and several large portraits of the President are on display in the museum; the blood-stained pillow from the President's deathbed is in the Ford's Theatre Museum. In addition to covering the assassination conspiracy, the renovated museum focuses on Lincoln's arrival in Washington, his presidential cabinet, family life in the White House and his role as orator and emancipator; the museum features exhibits about Civil War milestones and generals and about the building's history as a theatrical venue. The rocking chair in which Lincoln was sitting is now on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. After Lincoln was shot, doctors had soldiers carry him into the street in search of a house in which he would be more comfortable.
A man on the steps of the house of tailor William Petersen beckoned to them. They took Lincoln into the first-floor bedroom and laid him on the bed – diagonally because of his unusual height. Many people came to visit him throughout the night. Lincoln died the next morning at 7:22 a.m. The Petersen
George Washington Masonic National Memorial
The George Washington Masonic National Memorial is a Masonic building and memorial located in Alexandria, outside Washington, D. C, it is dedicated to the memory of George Washington, the first President of the United States and a Mason. The tower is fashioned after the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt; the 333-foot tall memorial sits atop Shooter's Hill at 101 Callahan Drive. Construction began in 1922, the building was dedicated in 1932, the interior completed in 1970. In July 2015, it was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture, as one of the largest-scale private memorials to honor Washington; the memorial is served by the King Street–Old Town Metro station on the Blue and Yellow Lines of the Washington Metro. The station is located about four blocks from the memorial; the idea to construct a Masonic memorial for George Washington was first proposed in 1852 by the Washington area's "mother lodge," Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4. Funds were sought from Grand Lodges throughout the United States to construct a memorial Masonic Temple with a large statue in the vestibule.
Enough funds were raised to commission a life-size bronze statue of Washington in full Masonic regalia from a sculptor named Powers, living in Rome, Italy. The statue reached Alexandria in early 1861, just before the outbreak of the American Civil War, it remained on display in Alexandria until the summer of 1863, when it was moved to Richmond, Virginia. The statue was destroyed in the fire which occurred as Richmond surrendered to the Army of the Potomac on April 3, 1865. Plans for a Masonic memorial moved forward again in 1909; the proposed site for the new memorial was Shooter's Hill, which at one time had been considered by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson as the site of the United States Capitol building. On May 8, 1900, citizens of Alexandria formed the "Washington Monument Association of Alexandria", a nonprofit organization whose mission was to build a memorial to George Washington in the city of Alexandria. Little was accomplished in the organization's first few years of life, but in February 1908 the WMAA purchased an option to buy a 50-acre tract of land on and around Shooter's Hill and the nearby Alexandria Golf Course.
Most of the land on either side of King Street was subdivided into housing tracts and sold, with 25 acres on top of Shooter's Hill reserved for a memorial. The sale of the housing subdivisions paid for the purchase of the entire tract, with enough left over to provide for construction of a memorial. Within a month of the purchase of Shooter's Hill, the WMAA decided to build a park rather than a memorial. About 15 acres were set aside for the George Washington Memorial Park, while another 4.5 acres were set aside for a small memorial within the park. The new subdivision, named Fort Ellsworth, was platted in November 1908, public streets laid out; the park was ready for dedication on April 30, 1909—the 120th anniversary of the inauguration of Washington as President. Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 was asked to preside over its dedication. President William Howard Taft, Vice President James S. Sherman, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Virginia Governor Claude A. Swanson, Virginia Lieutenant Governor J. Taylor Ellyson, the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, Baltimore Mayor J. Barry Mahool, numerous other dignitaries attended the dedication ceremony.
There were several reasons why Masonic bodies began to build a memorial. The construction of George Washington Memorial Park sparked renewed Masonic interest in building their own memorial, but another reason was the safety of items owned or used by George Washington and which were now owned by the Alexandria-Washington lodge. The lodge had suffered several fires over the previous century, a number of these historic items were destroyed. Constructing a fire resistive building which would more safely house these important items was a major factor in pushing the Masonic memorial forward. In late 1907 or early 1908, Alexandria Commissioner of Revenue Charles H. Callahan proposed to his fellow Masons that, at last, a memorial to George Washington should be built. Callahan proposed the construction of a $10,000 memorial temple. In early 1908, the Alexandria-Washington Lodge formed a "local memorial temple committee" to research the costs and obstacles involved in building a memorial temple; the committee passed a resolution asking Joseph Eggleston, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia, to approve the creation of a memorial temple and to assist in creating a national memorial association in which all Masons and Masonic organizations could participate.
On May 7, 1909, the Grand Lodge of Virginia called upon all grand lodges in the United States to meet in Alexandria on February 22, 1910, to discuss plans for organizing a George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association whose purpose would be to construct a memorial temple. President Taft, Representative Champ Clark, Secretary of War Jacob M. Dickinson, Virginia Governor William Hodges Mann all spoke at the February 22 meeting; the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association was formed at this meeting, plans were adopted to raise $500,000 to go toward the cost of construction and another $500,000 for an endowment and maintenance fund
Jefferson Memorial
The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D. C. dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, one of the most important of the American Founding Fathers as the main drafter and writer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress, governor of the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia, American minister to King Louis XVI, the Kingdom of France, first U. S. Secretary of State under the first President George Washington, the second Vice President of the United States under second President John Adams, the third President, as well as being the founder of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia; the neoclassical Memorial building is situated in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Tidal Basin off the Washington Channel of the Potomac River. It was designed by the architect John Russell Pope and built by the Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction of the building began in 1939 and was completed in 1943; the bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947.
Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon and Jefferson's own design for the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. The Jefferson Memorial, the White House located directly north, form one of the main anchor points in the area of the National Mall in D. C; the Washington Monument, just east of the axis on the national Mall, was intended to be located at the intersection of the White House and the site for the Jefferson Memorial to the south, but soft swampy ground which defied 19th century engineering required it be sited to the east. The Jefferson Memorial is managed by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior under its National Mall and Memorial Parks division. In 2007, it was ranked fourth on the "List of America's Favorite Architecture" by the American Institute of Architects, it became apparent that the site was well suited for another high-profile memorial since it sat directly south of the White House. By 1901 the Senate Park Commission, better known as the McMillan Commission, had proposed placing a Pantheon-like structure on the site hosting "the statues of the illustrious men of the nation, or whether the memory of some individual shall be honored by a monument of the first rank may be left to the future".
The completion of the Tidal Basin Inlet Bridge in 1908 helped to facilitate the recreational usage of East and West Potomac Parks. In 1918, large liquid-chlorine dispensers were installed under the bridge to treat the water and make the Tidal Basin suitable for swimming; the Tidal Basin Beach, on the site of the future Memorial, opened in May 1918 and operated as a "Whites Only" facility until 1925, when it was permanently closed to avoid the question of racial integration. A design competition was held for a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt in 1925; the winning design was submitted by John Russell Pope and consisted of a half-circle memorial situated next to a circular basin. The plan was not built; the Memorial's chance came in 1934 when President Franklin Roosevelt, an admirer of Jefferson himself, inquired to the Commission of Fine Arts about the possibility of erecting a memorial to Jefferson, including it in the plans for the Federal Triangle project, under construction at the time. The same year, Congressman John J. Boylan jumped off FDR's starting point and urged Congress to create the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission.
Boylan was appointed the Commission's first chairman and Congress appropriated $3 million for a memorial to Jefferson. The Commission chose John Russell Pope as the architect in 1935. Pope was the architect of the National Archives Building and original building of the National Gallery of Art, he prepared four different plans for each on a different site. One was on the Anacostia River at the end of East Capitol Street; the Commission preferred the site on the Tidal Basin because it was the most prominent site and because it completed the four-point plan called for by the McMillan Commission. Pope designed a large pantheon-like structure, to sit on a square platform, to be flanked by two smaller, colonnaded buildings. Construction began on December 15, 1938, the cornerstone was laid on November 15, 1939, by Franklin Roosevelt. By this point Pope had died and his surviving partners, Daniel P. Higgins and Otto R. Eggers, took over construction of the memorial; the design was modified at the request of the Commission of Fine Arts to a more conservative design.
Construction commenced amid significant opposition. The Commission of Fine Arts never approved any design for the Memorial and published a pamphlet in 1939 opposing both the design and site of the Memorial. In addition, many Washingtonians opposed the site because it was not aligned with L'Enfant's original plan. Many well established elm and cherry trees had to be removed for construction. Construction continued amid the opposition. In 1939, the Memorial Commission hosted a competition to select a sculptor for the planned statue in the center of the Memorial, they chose six finalists. Of the six, Rudulph Evans was chosen as the main sculptor and Adolph A. Weinman was chosen to sculpt the pediment relief situated above the entrance. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed the memorial landscape. The Olmsted planting plan installed at the time of construction featured a simple design within a circular driveway.
James Madison
James Madison Jr. was an American statesman, diplomat and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the United States Bill of Rights, he co-wrote The Federalist Papers, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, served as the fifth United States Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809. Born into a prominent Virginia planting family, Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War, he became dissatisfied with the weak national government established by the Articles of Confederation and helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which produced a new constitution to supplant the Articles of Confederation. Madison's Virginia Plan served as the basis for the Constitutional Convention's deliberations, he was one of the most influential individuals at the convention.
Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution, he joined with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing The Federalist Papers, a series of pro-ratification essays, considered to be one of the most influential works of political science in American history. After the ratification of the Constitution, Madison emerged as an important leader in the United States House of Representatives and served as a close adviser to President George Washington, he was the main force behind the ratification of the United States Bill of Rights, which enshrines guarantees of personal freedoms and rights within the Constitution. During the early 1790s, Madison came to oppose the economic program and accompanying centralization of power favored by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party, which was, alongside Hamilton's Federalist Party, one of the nation's first major political parties. After Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election, Madison served as Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809.
In that position, he supervised the Louisiana Purchase. Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election. After diplomatic protests and a trade embargo failed to end British attacks against American shipping, he led the United States into the War of 1812; the war was an administrative morass and ended inconclusively, but many Americans saw it as a successful "second war of independence" against Britain. The war convinced Madison of the necessity of a stronger federal government, he presided over the creation of the Second Bank of the United States and the enactment of the protective Tariff of 1816, he retired from public office in 1817 and died in 1836. He is considered to be one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States, historians have ranked Madison as an above-average president. James Madison Jr. was born on March 16, 1751, at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia, to James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway Madison. He grew up as the oldest of twelve children, with seven brothers and four sisters, though only six of his siblings would live to adulthood.
His father was a tobacco planter who grew up on a plantation called Mount Pleasant, which he had inherited upon reaching adulthood. With numerous slaves and a 5,000 acres plantation, Madison's father was the largest landowner and a leading citizen in the Piedmont. Madison's maternal grandfather was a prominent tobacco merchant. In the early 1760s, the Madison family moved into a newly built house. From age 11 to 16, Madison was sent to study under Donald Robertson, a Scottish instructor who served as a tutor for a number of prominent planter families in the South. Madison learned mathematics and modern and classical languages—he became proficient in Latin. At age 16, Madison returned to Montpelier, where he began a two-year course of study under the Reverend Thomas Martin in preparation for college. Unlike most college-bound Virginians of his day, Madison did not attend the College of William and Mary, where the lowland Williamsburg climate - thought to be more to harbor infectious disease - might have strained his delicate health.
Instead, in 1769, he enrolled at the College of New Jersey. His studies at Princeton included Latin, Greek and the works of the Enlightenment. Great emphasis was placed on both debate. Along with another classmate, Madison undertook an intense program of study and completed Princeton's three-year bachelor of arts degree in just two years, graduating in 1771, he remained at Princeton to study Hebrew and political philosophy under President John Witherspoon before returning home to Montpelier in early 1772. His ideas on philosophy and morality were shaped by Witherspoon, who converted Madison to the philosophy and modes of thinking of the Age of Enlightenment. Biographer Terence Ball says that at Princeton: He was immersed in the liberalism of the Enlightenment, converted to eighteenth-century political radicalism. From on James Madison's theories would advance the rights of happiness of man, his most active efforts would serve devotedly the cause of civil and political liberty. After returning to Montpelier, who had not yet decided on a specific career, served as a tutor to his younger siblings.
In the early 1770s the relationship between the American colonies a
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is a United States Presidential Memorial, a National Historic Landmark District in present-day Lincoln City, Indiana. It preserves the farm site where Abraham Lincoln lived with his family from 1816 to 1830. During that time, he grew from a 7-year-old boy to a 21-year-old man, his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, at least 27 other settlers were buried here in the Pioneer Cemetery. His sister Sarah Lincoln Grigsby was buried in the nearby Little Pigeon Baptist Church cemetery, across the street at Lincoln State Park. Included in the park is the Lincoln Living Historical Farm; the Lincoln Boyhood Home was named a National Historic Landmark in 1960. In 2005 the site was visited by 147,443 people. On site is a visitors' center, featuring a 15-minute orientation film about Lincoln's time in Indiana, museum and memorial halls; the site is located about ten minutes off the Interstate 64/U. S. 231 junction and near the new U. S. 231 Route, named the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Parkway in his honor.
The centerpiece of the memorial is a one-story limestone ashlar memorial building completed in 1945 that features five sculpted panels portraying different phases of Lincoln's life. It has a small theater featuring a 16-minute film about Lincoln's life in Indiana; the museum features several exhibits and artifacts related to Lincoln's life, which are located in an adjoining hall. A private gallery displays Lincoln-related artwork, including numerous portraits and lithographs of Lincoln and his family; the park holds an oil portrait of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, done by an artist long after her death. A chapel and meeting hall can be rented for other gatherings. Nearby is the site of the original Lincoln cabin. Discovered through a professional archeological excavation, it is now preserved and protected by a wall. A short distance from the original cabin site stands the replica farm house. Park rangers in full period clothing work the 1820s-style farm. Visitors can talk with them, take classes and learn more about the many activities and items at the farm.
The Living Historical Farm is open seasonally, from mid-spring to early fall. Abraham's father Thomas Lincoln had lost two previous homes in Kentucky, one at the Sinking Spring Farm where Lincoln was born, in part through problems with land titles; because Kentucky had not had proper land surveys in its early years, many residents were forced off their farms after surveys were completed and land titles were challenged. The Lincolns were one such family: after Thomas had built some economic and social success in Kentucky, he lost everything. In 1815 he went to Indiana to locate a new homestead for his family, he wanted to live in a free state rather than compete with farmers. The family took two weeks in 1816 to move to Spencer County in southern Indiana, settling at the Little Pigeon Creek Community. Lincoln was a talented carpenter, he could build cabins in as little as four days, was able to have their new home built before the winter began. The next year he built up the homestead, cleared land of trees and rocks before plowing, planted crops.
In early September 1818, some residents started coming down with milk sickness. It was caused by the settlers' consuming dairy products or meat of cows that ate the white snakeroot plant, which had the toxin temetrol. Cows roamed in woods and underbrush, where the white snakeroot grew. Most of those in Little Pigeon Creek with milk sickness became deathly ill, including Abraham's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, she succumbed and died on October 5, 1818. She was buried in a gravesite behind the family cabin next to the Lincolns' closest neighbor, Nancy Rusher Brooner. Brooner had been ill with milk sickness, was nursed by Nancy Lincoln, died two weeks before on September 18. Nancy's maternal aunt and uncle and Thomas Sparrow, with whom she had grown up died of the illness and were buried nearby, at what became known as Pioneer Cemetery. A minister could not reach the frontier settlement until the following spring, when he conducted a funeral service for all of the dead. Following his mother's death, young Abraham Lincoln continued to work on the farm and was cared for by his older sister Sarah.
In 1819 their father married Sarah Bush Johnston, a widow of Elizabethtown, Kentucky whom he had known from the years there. She had three children. Abraham shared the cabin's loft with his step brother John Johnston and his cousin Dennis Hanks for the rest of his time in Indiana. Sarah treated the Lincoln children as her own, Abraham grew close to her. Early on, the Lincoln family had joined the nearby Little Pigeon Creek Primitive Baptist Church, where Thomas served as a trustee and Abraham as a sexton; the church is preserved in the Lincoln State Park. In November 1819, the area's first school was opened by Andrew Crawford, at age 10, Abraham attended a school for the first time, at a cost of two dollars per year, he was a student there for two school years, which were three-month intervals held during the winter months when the children were not needed for farming. In 1822 the Lincolns enrolled the boy in a new school taught by James Swaney; as it was more than 4 miles away and Abraham had to walk there, his attendance was poor.
In 1824 he was transferred to another school closer to home, which he attended until age 16, when he ended formal schooling. In January 1826, Abraham's only sister Sarah died during the birth of her first child, s
