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Why Didn't Abraham Lincoln Travel?
Abraham Lincoln as a tourism driver is nothing new – history buffs have been making pilgrimages to Washington, D.C., Gettysburg and Abe's Midwestern stomping grounds for decades, and Springfield, Ill., attributes the majority of its annual $350 million tourism and convention business to the rail-splitter. But actually following in Lincoln's footsteps doesn't take a traveler very far.
Lincoln never crossed an ocean, a curiosity that clashes with what we might expect given his means, his intellect and Mary Todd Lincoln's famous taste for the finer things in life. Despite the difficulties of international travel in the mid-19th century, it wasn't unheard of. William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state, made it as far as the Middle East on a fact-finding mission. Benjamin Franklin had darted back and forth between the American colonies, England and France 100 years earlier.
It's understandable that Lincoln was too preoccupied to travel during his presidency. Still, it's a bit surprising that by his death in 1865, he hadn't ventured farther than New Orleans, New York or Missouri.
Leisure travel to Europe wasn't a popular concept in Lincoln's time. "It would have been dangerous, for one," says Dale Ogden, a senior curator at the Indiana State Museum who oversees a significant collection of the Lincoln family's belongings. "And Europe was in turmoil anyway."
Domestically, the railroads that Lincoln worked for as a lawyer weren't yet popular options for vacation. Even the train that took the president-elect from Springfield to D.C. on his Whistle-Stop Trip in 1861 wasn't exactly posh. "Lincoln's car would have been private as opposed to luxurious," Ogden says. "I don't think it would have been particularly unpleasant to travel by rail in 1860s, but it wouldn't have been even remotely close to what it became 20 years later." Instead, Lincoln "vacationed" at his summer home in D.C.
Yet travel made a serious impact on Lincoln's life, an aspect examined in "The Lincolns: Five Generations of an American Family," an exhibit that recently opened at the Indiana State Museum. He was frequently on the road on horseback as a circuit attorney in Illinois, and the job separated him from his eldest son, Robert, during the child's formative years. Ogden says this is a primary reason why Lincoln and Robert didn't have a close bond. "Lincoln was a workaholic," he says. "The fact that he did travel so much, because of his work, had a major role in the family dynamic."
The museum holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Lincoln artifacts, and "Five Generations" is only the second exhibit organized from its contents. A few of Mary's travel accessories, including her opera glasses and ostrich fan, are currently on display, highlighting her trips to Europe after Lincoln's death.
[Photo credit: Paukrus via Flickr]
Yet travel made a serious impact on Lincoln's life, an aspect examined in "The Lincolns: Five Generations of an American Family," an exhibit that recently opened at the Indiana State Museum. He was frequently on the road on horseback as a circuit attorney in Illinois, and the job separated him from his eldest son, Robert, during the child's formative years. Ogden says this is a primary reason why Lincoln and Robert didn't have a close bond. "Lincoln was a workaholic," he says. "The fact that he did travel so much, because of his work, had a major role in the family dynamic."
The museum holds one of the most comprehensive collections of Lincoln artifacts, and "Five Generations" is only the second exhibit organized from its contents. A few of Mary's travel accessories, including her opera glasses and ostrich fan, are currently on display, highlighting her trips to Europe after Lincoln's death.
[Photo credit: Paukrus via Flickr]
Filed under: History
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bradley Evans Feb 19th 2013 8:16PM
Mary Lincoln lived in Pau, France in her retirement years.
Linda Feb 21st 2013 8:42PM
Interesting -- I went to school in Pau many years ago, and never knew that. Guess I now have some research to do.
Mommabear Feb 22nd 2013 8:43AM
I am reading a book by Cokie Roberts on the Founding MOTHERS. I did not know that Ben Franklin left his wife and children behind when he went to France and stayed there for over a decade! He even had a mistress in France that he lived with. These were not short jaunts across the Atlantic.
Eric Bryce Feb 22nd 2013 9:02AM
Abraham Lincoln's wife never met her husbands father. Lincoln's mother died when he was 9 and his family were backwoods log cabin people and was ill equipt to move in the circle that his son moved in when his son Abe
In 1840,became engaged to Mary Todd who was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Lexington, Kentucky
~They met in Springfield, Illinois, in December 1839 and were engaged the following December.
A wedding set for January 1, 1841, was canceled when the two broke off their engagement at Lincoln's initiative.
~They later met again at a party and married on November 4, 1842, in the Springfield mansion of Mary's married sister.
~While preparing for the nuptials and feeling anxiety again, Lincoln, when asked where he was going, replied, "To hell, I suppose."
Eric Feb 22nd 2013 4:33PM
Despite claims made later, the cabin Lincoln was born in was likely destroyed by the time of his assassination. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site labels the replica cabin, which was built thirty years after his death, the "Traditional Lincoln Birthplace Cabin." However, the significance of the two Hodgenville sites (birthplace and boyhood home) are found in the setting itself.
37°31′53″N 85°44′10″W
Kris S Mar 6th 2013 2:00PM
Actually Abraham Lincoln visited Concord, New Hampshire and Exeter, NH at least once in a well-documented trip. http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Hampshire-Elwin-Page/dp/0981821510. His son was in boarding school there.
So he had traveled farther than New York....
Megan Fernandez Mar 7th 2013 8:56AM
You're right, Kris. Thanks for pointing this out. You know your Lincoln.