And occasionally, we get asked a question on a tour that stops us in our tracks β one we wish we could spend a half hour answering.
Some of these questions, on their face, were innocent or simple, but on a second look they contain a level of complexity that leaves us wanting to know more. Come on down the rabbit hole with us as we seek the answers β we always start with Lincoln and the Cottage, but we often end up in unexpected places. Come along with us! Transcript below! Visitors, young and old alike, connect with us from next door and from around the globe. Callie Hawkins: And occasionally, we get asked a question on a tour that stops us in our tracks, one we wish we could spend a half hour answering.
Some of these questions, on their face, seem innocent or simple, but on a second look they contain a level of complexity that leaves us wanting to know more. I always feel honored when a young person feels comfortable asking me a question they really want to know the answer to.
CH: Other than a general sense of curiosity β which we always recommend β what might lead people to ask this question? What is in the historical record about this? JC: One person who often comes up in these conversations is someone Lincoln met here at the Cottage. JC: We also have a couple primary sources in which other people remark on the relationship between Lincoln and Derickson.
L is not home, sleeps with him. Chuck Strozier: And, and we know a number of things about the relationship. First of all, we know it was the, by far, the most important friend of Abraham Lincoln, and really the only friend he knew. Aside from Mary, I mean, Mary, you know, was his wife and he was friends with her, but it was a, a different kind of textured relationship. We also know that from the time Lincoln arrived in Springfield from New Salem in mid-April , he slept in the same bed with Joshua Speed from then until December, late December We also know that the anticipated separation from Speed, who was planning to move back to Louisville to deal with the estate of his father, the Farmington, the plantation, that the anticipation of separation from Speed had something, I would say significantly β people disagree on, on this β but it had something to do with the broken courtship with Mary that late December.
