Added by 1870, the library includes many items that depict Henry Lane’s connection with Abraham Lincoln. Henry and Lincoln were close friends, and a photo taken the day of Lincoln’s funeral shows Henry in front of Lincoln’s Springfield, Illinois home. He joined the funeral train in Indianapolis on April 30 and traveled to Chicago and then to Springfield, Illinois. He served as honorary pallbearer at the funeral.

Although Lincoln never made it to Crawfordsville, he has a connection with some of the Lanes’ belongings. During the years that Henry was a senator in Washington, D.C., he and Joanna (Mrs. Lane) stayed at the National Hotel. President and Mrs. Lincoln would often come over to visit. Knowing how much Lincoln liked biscuits (soda crackers), Joanna would fill a cookie jar with soda crackers, and Lincoln would snack from the jar by the hour while the Lanes and Lincolns visited.

The library contains many items relating to the Mexican and Civil Wars. In one corner you can see a portable writing desk used by Colonel Lane in the Mexican War (1846-47). The desk is made of papier-mâché with motif in decoupage.

Inside a bookcase used by the Lanes is a Civil War era surgeon’s case and instruments. This set was made in England, sold to the Southern Confederacy, passed through the blockade and used at Nashville by Confederate surgeons until the end of the war. You can see a wobbly projectile used in a cannon at Gettysburg to fire at the Cavalry. This relic was found by a tourist walking on the battlefield. A concertina, bugle and flutes used by soldiers during the Civil War lie on the bottom shelf and remind us of poignant moments around a campfire as the soldiers played music and probably longed to go home.

Other items of interest include:

• Marble bust. Senator Henry Lane, sculpted in Italy in 1883. Joanna ordered it on her way to Turkey to visit her sister and brother-in-law, Lew Wallace, while he was ambassador to Turkey.