Abraham Lincoln (1887) by George Peter Alexander HealySmithsonian's National Portrait Gallery
Many more than four score and seven years ago, America's 16th President ended the Civil War, abolished slavery, and defined the USA as a nation "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".
He's remembered as perhaps the greatest of the country's Presidents. Scroll on, using the click-and-drag tool to explore, and visit a half-score (that's 10!) crucial sites from Lincoln's historic life.
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Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park
As every American schoolkid knows, Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809 in a log cabin. The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in Kentucky is built on the site of his parents' farm and at its heart is a symbolic log cabin, much like the one Lincoln would have known.
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Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Springfield, Illinois
By 1837, the young Abraham Lincoln had moved to Springfield, Illinois to practice law. In 1839, he met his wife, Mary Todd, and in 1844, they bought this house at 413 South Eighth Street. He lived here until he moved to the White House on his inauguration as President in 1861.
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Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois
The house was given to the state on the condition it would remain permanently preserved and open to the public, free of charge. Inside, you find the typical decoration of the era - which many find quite surprising!
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US House of Representatives
Lincoln had sought election since 1843, but it would be four years before he reached the House of Representatives. In 1846 he had promised to stand for only one term, and he kept true to his word, declining an offer to be made governor of the Oregan Territory.
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Cooper Union
In February 1860, Abraham Lincoln was invited to speak at the Cooper Union on the moral duty to oppose slavery. The speech was well-received, and the event introduced him to the elite of New York. Following this, he soon made a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
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The White House
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president. He was the first Republican president and his victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West; no ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states.
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Fort Sumter
Tensions had long been building across the young nation, driven mainly by the issue of slavery. Before Lincoln even entered office, many states had seceded. And on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, triggering the Civil War.
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Battle of Antietam
By 6pm of September 17, 1862, 22,000 men lay dead in the fields of Antietam. The battle was the bloodiest day of the civil war, and the Union victory was seen as a turning point. Five days later Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, effectively demanding total surrender.
[President Lincoln, United States Headquarters, Army of the Potomac, near Antietam] (October 4, 1862) by Alexander GardnerThe J. Paul Getty Museum
This photograph was taken in the officers camp at Antietam. The Civil War was one of the first conflicts in history to see the use of photography on - and off - the battlefield to raise morale and to document atrocities.
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Gettysburg Address
On the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the new Soldiers' National Cemetery, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln gave a short address to the assembled crowd.
LIFE Photo Collection
This photograph captures Lincoln's arrival at the event, several hours before he gave his own short, but historic speech that began with the immortal words, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty…"
Lincoln's speech wasn't even the main event of the day, yet in just 271 words he gave a lamentation for the dead and set forth a vision of hope that would be recalled and revered for years after.
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Ford's Theatre
By 1865 Lincoln had been elected for a second term, and reconstruction of the nation was underway. On April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathiser.
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Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln's body toured the nation on a funeral train, before being interred on May 4, 1865 at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. Besides the buildings, streets, and towns named for him, the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall was opened in 1922 to honour his legacy.
Lincoln Funeral Map (1889) by John Carroll PowerFord's Theatre
