Built as a memorial and a final resting place for the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Tomb also has the remains of the President?s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln and three of their sons, Edward, William, and Thomas whereas Robert, the eldest, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Lincoln Tomb, now owned and administered by the State of Illinois as Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site, was built through the efforts of the National Lincoln Monument Association, a group of Springfield citizens, which organized a fund raising campaign.

The 117-foot tomb is situated at the center of a 12 ? acre land with a rotunda, a burial chamber also called the ?catacomb? and corridors that connect to the rotunda and to the chamber. President Lincoln?s remains are contained in a concrete vault ten feet below the marble floor of the burial room. Welcoming the visitors is a replica of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C. placed on the entrance foyer. There are 16 marble pilasters separated by marble panels on the inside walls of the rotunda, each representing Lincoln and the fifteen United States Presidents before him. 36 bronze panels are also found inside the burial chamber, which are made to symbolize each State of the Country at the time of Lincoln?s death. Also seen inside the black and white marbled burial room are nine flags of which seven are the State flags of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois ? the homes of Lincoln and his ancestors, while the two others are the Stars and Stripes and the Presidential flag.

Depicting the life of President Lincoln are eight statues along the corridors, four bronze tablets on which the Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, a piece of the second inaugural address and a biographical sketch of Lincoln are engraved, and a 7-ton cenotaph decorated with Lincoln?s name and the years he lived are also in display at the memorial tomb.