Instructify

BY BILL FERRIS

The Lincoln Log has nothing to do with those fun wooden playsets you can build houses with. Instead, it’s “A daily chronology of the life of Abraham Lincoln.” Seeing as how Lincoln lived long before people could record the daily minutiae of their lives in blogs, the staff of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln combed through a lot of historical documents in order to find out what Honest Abe was up to on any particular day. In addition to a keyword search, you can search by date, year, or see what happened today in Lincoln’s life.

The Lincoln Log is pretty thorough — sure, you could skip to the date of the Gettysburg Address or Lincoln’s assassination. But then you’d also miss out on January 15, 1833, when Lincoln and business partner William Green bought a store for $750 cash. Like anyone, Lincoln’s life had both exciting and dull sections. However, reading about some of the less well-known events early in Lincoln’s life may give your students insight into what shaped him into one of America’s most-revered presidents.

The Lincoln Log

Related stuff:

Take your class to the Lincoln Memorial Interactive

Take a virtual tour of The White House Museum

Break into the vaults at the National Archive Experience

Keep track of presidential campaign promises with the Obameter

Photo credit: chadh on Flickr.