Lincoln House Brick Desk Set
Relic Pen Holder, 1958

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Lincoln House Brick Relic
detail
Lincoln House Brick Desk Set
W. A. Sheaffer Pen Co., Fort Madison, Iowa: 1958
Alabaster pen holder with pen, brick, and engraved plaque
Sheaffer pen model number: D4950M
5 x 3.5 x 1 inch base
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Lincoln house brick relic that has been made into a souvenir desk set. It consists of a one-inch-thick section of brick from Abraham Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois, home and an engraved plaque attached to a white alabaster rectangular pen holder base of typical form.

Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer when he, his wife Mary and their infant son moved into the home at Eighth and Jackson Streets in Springfield, Illinois, in 1844. Three more sons were born in the house (although one died at age 3). Lincoln's career grew as well; he was elected to the U.S. Senate and then as President of the United States. The family departed for Washington in 1861 when he was inaugurated. Lincoln and his wife decided they would eventually return to Springfield, so they placed their best furniture in storage and rented the home. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Mary Lincoln said that the house held too many reminders of happier times for her to live in it again, and so the home continued as a rental property until it was donated by their son Robert to the State of Illinois in 1887 to be preserved as an historic site. Since 1972, the home has belonged to the National Park Service. From the immediate aftermath of the assassination to the present, it has been an important symbolic site attracting visitors who have come to remember Lincoln and honor his legacy.

Engraved plaque: "Original Brick From Abraham Lincoln's Home at Eighth and Jackson Streets Springfield, Illinois."

Label on underside: "The segment of hand moulded brick mounted on this base is a part of the original brick foundation of Abraham Lincoln's home at 8th & Jackson Sts., Springfield, Illinois. It was salvaged during a repair contract completed in July 1954. Harry C. Jorgensen, Mason Contractor."

Reference:

Good, Tim and Reynolds, Mary. "The Lincoln Home Through the Years." Lincoln Home National Historic Site. http://www.nps.gov/liho/25/25.htm (28 July 2003).