Springfield Pilgrimage
The almost final leg of our epic summer road trip was Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln spent four years sharing a bed with his intimate friend, Joshua Speed. takadainmate and I have had a long-standing (well, for like a year now) interest in Joshua and Abe and their beautiful and pure love. Awhile ago I posted this letter from Abe about Joshua's recent marriage. Many of their letters are extremely slashy, but this one is interesting because it hints at lots of stuff going on between them that we don't know about. Especially since all of Joshua's letters to Abe have been lost.
Springfield itself was kind of random and strangely deserted. Also almost every single building was called Lincoln something or other.
We started our pilgrimage at the house that Lincoln lived in when he found out he was going to become president. The whole thing has been made into a national park with lots of other period houses that have also been restored. -
He and Mary Todd had separate bedrooms, but here is his bed where he in no way had dirty thoughts about Joshua -
And his writing desk where he wrote his love letters to Joshua (check out the lovely wallpaper and clashing carpet) -
Then we were on to the Abraham Lincoln Museum. Now this museum is a thing of wonder. Not like a regular museum with old things, but filled with recreations of Abe's life and animatronics and ridiculous theater shows and lots of other things like you would at Disneyland.
First we have Abe's disembodied head -
takadainmate pointedly not molesting young!Abe -
And on to more lovely wax figures. This was supposed to be the one room cabin where he grew up in Indiana. -
Me with Abe at one of his earlier jobs (pre meeting Joshua) -
Lounging on the couch -
This is the point that we got yelled at for taking pictures, despite the extreme lack of signs saying that picture taking wasn't allowed. -
Of course that didn't stop me! This was a sign explaining that 'no, in fact they didn't have televisions back in Abe's day' just in case you were unsure. XD
And despite the fact that the museum was closing and they were kicking us out, we begged the guard to take a pic of us with Abe and his family.
Possibly next up when I get around to it - Pride in Chicago!
Springfield itself was kind of random and strangely deserted. Also almost every single building was called Lincoln something or other.
We started our pilgrimage at the house that Lincoln lived in when he found out he was going to become president. The whole thing has been made into a national park with lots of other period houses that have also been restored. -
He and Mary Todd had separate bedrooms, but here is his bed where he in no way had dirty thoughts about Joshua -
And his writing desk where he wrote his love letters to Joshua (check out the lovely wallpaper and clashing carpet) -
Then we were on to the Abraham Lincoln Museum. Now this museum is a thing of wonder. Not like a regular museum with old things, but filled with recreations of Abe's life and animatronics and ridiculous theater shows and lots of other things like you would at Disneyland.
First we have Abe's disembodied head -
takadainmate pointedly not molesting young!Abe -
And on to more lovely wax figures. This was supposed to be the one room cabin where he grew up in Indiana. -
Me with Abe at one of his earlier jobs (pre meeting Joshua) -
Lounging on the couch -
This is the point that we got yelled at for taking pictures, despite the extreme lack of signs saying that picture taking wasn't allowed. -
Of course that didn't stop me! This was a sign explaining that 'no, in fact they didn't have televisions back in Abe's day' just in case you were unsure. XD
And despite the fact that the museum was closing and they were kicking us out, we begged the guard to take a pic of us with Abe and his family.
Possibly next up when I get around to it - Pride in Chicago!