Abraham Lincoln's Residence

Color print of a corner view of a two-story wood frame house identified as the residence of Abraham Lincoln. A horse-drawn wagon, a man on horseback and pedestrians are on the streets in the foreground.

This undated, hand-colored print of Lincoln’s residence in Springfield, Illinois, was most likely created in the period of high public demand for Lincoln images around the time of his assassination, during which many Northerners felt a desire to display a representation of the man they believed to be the savior of their nation. Lincoln lived in this two-story, twelve-room home from 1844 to 1861. In the print, a men on horseback, women with parasols, and a horse-drawn buggy all pass by the residence on the road. A beardless Abraham Lincoln and one his sons stand near the entrance to the home.

On February 6, 1861, about 700 friends, neighbors, and well-wishers came to his residence to bid him farewell before he left for Washington. Lincoln departed Springfield on February 11, 1861, for his inauguration, but would never return to this home alive. His oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, donated the family home to the state of Illinois in 1887 and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.

The publisher of the print, R.R. Landon, of Chicago, also published numerous engravings of Lincoln by American artist John Sartain. After Lincoln’s assassination, Landon produced and sold mourning badges featuring the likeness of the dead president to the grieving Chicago public. Landon’s print bears many similarities to another printed by L. Prang & Co, “Home of Abraham Lincoln,” also found in the “America on Stone” Collection.

Currently not on view