Author: Jessie Knoles

Have you ever wondered what Abraham Lincoln ate in his day? Lincoln wasn’t known to be much of a foodie—he had simple taste in cuisine and often skipped meals altogether. However, there are a few unique dishes that he’s rumored to have enjoyed, so we decided to recreate two of them to get a glimpse into Lincoln’s life.* Download our printable recipe cards to try your hand at these recipes at home! 

 *We made minor adjustments to the original recipes to ensure they would be appealing to modern tastes. 

Corn dodgers

This simple, satisfying food is essentially a savory cornmeal patty that can be fried or baked.… Read More

When imagining an artist’s rendering of the sixteenth president, you might first envision something like George Peter Alexander Healy’s famous 1869 painting Abraham Lincoln that depicts the seated, contemplative statesman, or perhaps Norman Rockwell’s 1964 Lincoln the Railsplitter portraying a young beardless Hoosier with axe in one hand and a book in the other. What might not immediately come to mind is something like Midwestern meat processor John Morrell & Co.’s 1963 Pictorial Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln, a commemorative calendar featuring colorful renditions of Lincoln’s life by Isa Barnett for each month. That’s just one of the nearly nine-hundred items from the IHLC’s Lincoln Prints and Ephemera Collection (MS 1045) to be available for patron use upon our reopening to the public (pending state and university regulations for managing the COVID-19 pandemic).… Read More