Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg was born in this three room cottage in 1878. His father and mother were poor Swedish immigrants. By the age of 13 he was a day laborer. Returning to Galesburg after serving in the Spanish American War he put himself through Lombard College, now Knox College. One of the great writers of the 20th century, in 1940 his six volume biography of Abraham Lincoln received the Pulitzer Prize for History. Sandburg saw Lincoln as "the embodiment of the American Spirit."

Behind the cottage is a little park built as a memorial to his only novel "Remembrance Rock." It features a large red granite boulder unearthed near Galesburg, which rests on a bed of soil taken from Plymouth Rock, Valley Forge, the Argonne Forest in France, and from his parents' home in Sweden. His ashes were placed there at his death in 1967.

Galesburg, Illinois

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This watercolor painting is part of a larger historical painting series by Kay Smith, Artist Laureate of Illinois.
Visit Kay Smith's website to see additional paintings.