Now He Belongs to the Ages.
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on Lincoln’s death, April 15, 1865

Since his death, Lincoln has been immortalized in hundreds of ways, especially in Springfield, Illinois.  His home, visited by soldiers from nearby Camp Butler as early as 1861, was opened as a “shrine” in 1887 by the State of Illinois.  Bridges, schools, cities, counties, and toys are just some of the things named for Lincoln.  Six National Park units are specifically associated with Lincoln, including the Springfield home he lived in for seventeen years, which became a National Historic Site in 1972.

Lincoln’s legacy also included some unique aspects.  He is the tallest president and one of the earliest presidents to be photographed, and the first to have a beard while in the White House.
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Lincoln is the only President to hold a patent, having created a device to re-float stranded boats in 1849.  But he is better remembered for his actions as President, memorialized through thousands of books, statues, and portraits.

Today, hundreds of thousands of people visit the Lincoln Home every year to learn more about the man who fought for the ideals of freedom and democracy.  Even during Lincoln’s life, when he was an attorney turned president-elect, people came to Springfield at Eighth and Jackson Streets to learn more about Lincoln, his family, and his home.  Reporters and photographers also came, charged with telling the rest of America, through words and images, about Abraham Lincoln.  Print makers used the photographs to make Lincoln’s image available in inexpensive prints.  Small copies of the photographs mounted on cards (carte-de-visite) were sold around the country and collected in family photo albums.

Abraham Lincoln and the sites connected to some part of his life have proven to be popular even 140+ years after his death.  Shortly after Lincoln’s death, souvenir hunters collected items from the trees in the yard around the house, or adaptively reused materials gleaned from the other farms where he grew up, or homes he had been in.  In 1909, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, thousands of items were created to commemorate the event, most notably the U.S. one cent coin, more commonly known as the penny.
           
Lincoln is still a popular subject for souvenirs.  His image is used in ornaments, dolls, or as an advertisement for sleep aids.  Lincoln Logs, designed as a tribute to Lincoln’s early years living in a log cabin, continue to be one of the most popular toys in the world.  A quick search on “Lincoln” at an internet auction site turns up everything from books to t-shirts to postcards to musical recordings.  The Lincoln name is used for cities, counties, cab companies, and cars.  A cross-country highway bears his name.  “Abraham Lincoln” has appeared in numerous films and television shows as diverse as the classic Henry Fonda film Young Mr. Lincoln to a Star Trek episode. Having the Lincoln name means connecting to the quality he is best known for: honesty.
           
Lincoln and the Lincoln Home are used on a variety of memorabilia including a glass bust from the 1876 Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia, a brick with Lincoln’s profile, a credit card, Christmas ornaments, figurines, toys, bank checks, and newspapers.  Sometimes the items are even made from a part of the Lincoln Home including a pin tray made from gutter material, or canes made from limbs of the trees in the Lincolns’ yard.
It is easy to recognize the Lincoln Home on items because it has remained virtually unchanged since Lincoln’s time.  Photographic views of the Lincoln Home show mostly cosmetic changes outside.  The Lincoln Home has been painted white, yellow, and a variety of light and medium browns.  At some point in the home’s history there has been a tall flagpole in the front corner, cannons in the back yard and pointed at the house, trees and bushes that nearly obscured the house, a striped awning over the front door, an enclosed front and screened back porch.
Inside, the house has been a “museum” of randomly placed Lincoln objects, an overstuffed Victorian home with so many items that artifacts are placed on top of other items, and finally returned to the appearance of a family home.