1940 William Mark Young Pictorial Map of Illinois illustrating the Lincoln Trail

A rare 1940 pictorial map of Illinois by William Mark Young illustrating the travels and life of Abraham Lincoln. The map covers from Wisconsin's Bad Axe River to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and Quincy, Illinois to Louisville, Kentucky. The map was compiled from records at the Chicago Public Library and at the Chicago Historical Society. As described in the map's legend,

The Lincoln Trail Map covers those years of Abraham Lincoln's life from birth until his nomination to the presidency of the United States.

The whole is lavishly illustrated. There are five portraits, including Mary Todd Lincoln, Sara Bush Lincoln, Judge Stephen Logan (Lincoln's Law Partner), Thomas Lincoln, and William H. Herndon (Lincoln's biographer). In addition there are vignette illustrations Lincoln's legendary log cabin, Rutledge Dam and Mill, the Berry Lincoln Store in Ne Salem, and the Old Court House in Metamora. Larger illustrations in the upper left focus on the last Lincoln-Douglass debate in Alton Illinois before the presidential election, and in the lower left, a rafting trip to New Orleans.

William Mark Young compiled this map at the behest of the Northern Trust Company to celebrate that organization's 51st year in operation. The Northern Trust contracted Young to illustrate a map/poster for some, but not all, if its anniversaries. This map may have been printed by Ralph Henry Gabriel of Yale University Press.