Lincoln's Cottage: Sanctuary amid the turmoil of the Civil War

(International Herald Tribune) - If you look out the windows of President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home — the idiosyncratic and intriguing museum that is opening to the public on Tuesday after a ceremonial event on Monday — you have to imagine what Abraham Lincoln might have seen during those summer evenings when he stood here.
The cottage is on a hilltop, the third highest in the area. And when Lincoln first came here, seeking a respite from the summer heat, the swampy air and the incessant bustle of the White House, he could have looked out over the expanding city below him, with the unfinished Washington Monument and incomplete Capitol dome rising in the distance. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress