"Lincoln National Memorial, Kentucky," Curteich, c. 1935

A National Shrine

Lincoln’s birthplace cabin has been a national shrine since 1911. The exterior building has fifty six steps (one for each year of Lincoln’s life) leading to the entrance; inside, stands the cabin but it may contain logs from other cabins due to the fact that it was disassembled and reassembled many times for public displays throughout the country before the shrine opened. Nonetheless, the cabin remains a powerful symbol of Lincoln’s rise from humble origins to greatness.