Lincoln Treasures: Student Desk
May 16th, 2009Filed under: Exhibitions
Desk and chair used by Abraham Lincoln while he studied law.
One of the first artifacts you see in the Lincoln Treasures exhibit is the desk and chair at which Lincoln studied law. The main thing people notice is its small size for a man who was 6 feet, 4 inches tall. When working on the exhibit, I imagined many times Lincoln squeezing himself into the chair and then cramming himself under the desk. To become a lawyer, he reportedly read many massive law books like Blackstone’s Commentaries more than once.
In 1834, Lincoln, at the age of 25, became an Illinois state legislator. At that time, the capital was in Vandalia. Museum records indicate that he used this desk and chair in a room he rented there while the state legislature met. At some point before the desk came to the Museum, someone cut its top at an angle so that it could be displayed in a corner.
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Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Chair, Desk, Lincoln Treasures, Peter Alter
