Springfield is the capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois and the seat of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh-most populous city, the second-most populous outside of the Chicago metropolitan area, and the most populous in Central Illinois. Approximately 208,000 residents live in the Springfield metropolitan area, which consists of all of Sangamon and Menard counties. Springfield lies in a plain near the Sangamon River north of Lake Springfield. The city is on historic Route 66.
Sangamon County is a county located near the center of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 196,343. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield, the state capital.
Carthage is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Its population was 2,490 as of the 2020 census. Carthage is best known for being the site of the 1844 death of Joseph Smith, who founded the Latter Day Saint movement.
Mary Ann Todd Lincoln served as the First Lady of the United States from 1861 until the assassination of her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1865.
A catafalque is a raised bier, box, or similar platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of a dead person during a Christian funeral or memorial service. Following a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a catafalque may be used to stand in place of the body at the absolution of the dead or used during Masses of the Dead and All Souls' Day.
The Sangamon River is a principal tributary of the Illinois River, approximately 246 miles (396 km) long, in central Illinois in the United States. It drains a mostly rural agricultural area and runs through Decatur and past Springfield. The river is associated with the early career of Abraham Lincoln, who was a sometime boatman working on the river, and played an important role in early European settlement of Illinois, when the area around was known as the "Sangamon River Country". The section of the Sangamon River that flows through Robert Allerton Park near Monticello was named a National Natural Landmark in 1971.
The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representatives elected from individual legislative districts for two-year terms with no limits; redistricted every 10 years, based on the 2010 U.S. census each representative represents approximately 108,734 people.
The Lincoln Tomb is the final resting place of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States; his wife Mary Todd Lincoln; and three of their four sons: Edward, William, and Thomas. It is located in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois.
After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, a three-week series of events was held to mourn the death and memorialize the life of the 16th president of the United States. Funeral services, a procession, and a lying in state were first held in Washington, D.C., then a funeral train transported Lincoln's remains 1,654 miles (2,662 km) through seven states for burial in Springfield, Illinois. Never exceeding 20 mph, the train made several stops in principal cities and state capitals for processions, orations, and additional lyings in state. Many Americans viewed the train along the route and participated in associated ceremonies.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum documents the life of the 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, and 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, also 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, Illinois, and is overseen as an agency of state government. It is not affiliated with the U.S. National Archives and its system of libraries.
The Illinois State Capitol, located in Springfield, Illinois, houses the legislative and executive branches of the government of the U.S. state of Illinois. Becoming the seat of the legislature in 1876, the current building is the sixth to serve as the capitol building since Illinois was admitted to the United States in 1818. Built in the architectural styles of the French Renaissance and Italianate, it was designed by Cochrane and Garnsey, an architectural and design firm based in Chicago. Ground was broken for the new capitol structure on March 11, 1868, and the building was completed twenty years later for a total cost of $4.5 million.
Lincoln College was a private college in Lincoln, Illinois. The college offered associate, bachelor's, and master's programs. It maintained an extension site in Normal, Illinois that provided adults with Accelerated Bridge to Education bachelor's degree programs. The college closed on May 13, 2022.
The Old State Capitol State Historic Site, in Springfield, Illinois, is a former capitol building for the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of two preserved former Illinois capitol buildings. It was built in the Greek Revival style in 1837–1840, when Springfield became the capital city, and served as the state house from 1840 to 1876, when it was replaced by the current capitol. It is the site of candidacy announcements by Abraham Lincoln in 1858 and Barack Obama in 2007. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, primarily for its association with Lincoln and his political rival Stephen Douglas.
Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central third of the state, divided from north to south. Also known as the Heart of Illinois, it is characterized by small towns and mid-sized cities. Agriculture, particularly corn and soybeans, as well as educational institutions and manufacturing centers, figure prominently.
Abraham Lincoln: The Man is a larger-than-life size 12-foot (3.7 m) bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. The original statue is in Lincoln Park in Chicago, and later re-castings of the statue have been given as diplomatic gifts from the United States to the United Kingdom, and to Mexico.
The Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) began as part of the United States Newspaper Program (USNP), a cooperative effort between the states and the federal government designed to catalog and preserve on microfilm the nation's historic newspaper heritage. The USNP was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and administered by the Library of Congress, which is currently funding the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), of which the INP is also a part.
Shea's Gas Station Museum Center piece The Mahan Filling Station located on Route 66 in Springfield, Illinois was transformed from a working Texaco, and later Marathon, station into a museum by owner Bill Shea and his wife Helen. The museum contained an eclectic mix of vintage gas station memorabilia collected over the last fifty years including the original gas pumps, wooden phone booths, signs, photos, and other mementos reminiscent of old Route 66 service stations. In February 2000, the former Mahan's Station, rumored to be the oldest filling station in Illinois, was moved 21 miles to its current location at Fulgenzi's. It has since been fully restored. The museum's guestbook boasts visitors from all over Europe and Asia and has become a destination for international travelers exploring the Mother Road. Due to his commitment to preserving Route 66 history and gas station memorabilia, plus his many years of quality service to his customers, Bill Shea and his shop were inducted into the Route 66 Hall of Fame in 1993. The entire Shea family was inducted in 2002. Bill Shea died in December 2013 and the gas station was sold. The museum contents were auctioned in 2015. As of 2015, the old Filling Station building was in use as the Fulgenzi's Pizza & Pasta.
The Springfield and Central Illinois African-American History Museum is a museum of African-American history and culture located in Springfield in the U.S. state of Illinois. The museum was founded in 2012 by historical educator Douglas King, and moved to a permanent location adjacent to Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery in March 2016. The history museum is located in the former home of the Museum of Funeral Customs, which closed permanently in 2009.
The President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, a DoubleTree by Hilton is a downtown hotel, at 701 East Adams Street in the state capital of Springfield,, llinois.
First Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) located in downtown Springfield, Illinois. This is the church that President Abraham Lincoln and his family attended while they lived in Springfield.
