Added around 1875, the library includes many items in connection with Abraham Lincoln, a close friend of Henry, including a photo taken the day of Lincoln’s funeral. Mr. Lane was pallbearer. He joined the funeral train in Indianapolis on April 30. It traveled to Chicago and then to Springfield, Illinois.The library also contains many items relating to the Mexican War, the Civil War, as well as American Indians.

Although Lincoln never made it to Crawfordsville, he does have a connection with some of the Lane's belongings. While Mr. Lane was a Senator in Washington, D.C., he and 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), Mrs. Lane would always fill a cookie jar with soda crackers, and Lincoln would eat from the jar by the hour while the Lanes and Lincolns visited.

In one corner you can see a portable writing desk (on top of the larger desk) used by Colonel Lane in the Mexican War (1846-47). The desk is made of papier-mache with motif in decoupage.

In a display cabinet is found 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 also see a wobbley projectile used in a cannon at Gettysburg to fire at the Cavalry. This relic was found by a tourist walking on the battlefield. The water flask and the concertina next to the projectile were used during the Civil War era.

Other items of interest:
* Three Eagle chairs. Handmade forerunner of the Hitchcock chair (from late 18th century). They were given to Joanna by her mother (Maria Elston).
* Bookcases from the Elston home that dates from 1830s.
* Souvenir Badge from G.A.R. Encampment held in Crawfordsville in May of 1909. Presented by Mrs. Elizabeth Wainscott of Crawfordsville. Badge belonged to her father, Mr. George Ocheltree of the 150th Indiana Infantry.
* Quilt. This quilt pre-dates the Civil War. A cannonball at the Gettysburg Battle (on Seminary Ridge) set it afire and this remnant has been passed down through numerous generations.
* Photo of Captain E.N. Nicholson, Co. C. 11th Indiana commanded by Col. Lew Wallace (Capt. Nicholson was Meredith Nicholson’s father).
* Indian lithographs from the 1820s and 1830s, friends and traders with Major Elston, Joanna’s father. Given by Joanna’s nephew, Isaac Elston III in 1934.
* Moccasins.
* Map. A handmade production of the Royal Academy of London circa 1710. (Redrawn from French fur traders’ charts which date back to the 1600s.
* Marble bust. Senator Henry Lane, done 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.
* Photo of Mrs. Lane in her Inaugural Ball gown, 1865.
* Invitation to Inaugural Ball in 1865. Senator Lane was the Inaugural Committee Chairman in 1865 for Abraham Lincoln.
* Secretary with bookcase. -It belonged to Henry Lane and dates from 1840. Originally it did not have porcelain knobs but keys for each drawer and door.
* Letter opener. Ivory, used by Governor Oliver P. Morton on his desk at the State House during the Civil War.
* Wooden gavel. Used by Indiana’s first legislature at Corydon in 1816.
* Seal. Long, brass container used to store wax and seal envelopes.
* Clay oil lamp. The Wallaces brought this back from Herculaneum.
* Portrait of James Wilson, protege of the Lanes, graduate of Wabash College, U.S. Congressman and U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela. He read law with Henry Lane.
Indian Wampum Belt. -Given to Henry by an Indian friend. Senator Lane served as Chairman of Indian Affairs while in the U.S. Senate, 1861-67.
* Locket. Lock of President Abraham Lincoln’s hair, cut by Dr. Taft, April 15, 1865. Judd Stewart Collection.
* Campaign ribbon of William Henry Harrison visited this town frequently during the 1820s and ’30s. This campaign ribbon was used when he was elected President in 1840.
* Biography of Abraham Lincoln. This 1860 campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln, written by Bostonian William Dean Howell, sold for 10 cents when issued. President Lincoln said that it was very accurate. Only a few copies remain.
* Gold watch of Sylvia Ann Elston’s gold watch, a gift from her parents just before her death at the age of 24.
* Washington saucer. Society of Cincinnatus emblem. Mary Custis married Robert E. Lee in 1831. She was a daughter of George Washington Custis, adopted son of General George Washington. This porcelain china dish, a saucer, was one piece in a set of China Trade porcelain purchased by Washington in August of 1787. The china was used by Washington and inherited by Mary Custis.
* Funeral wreath from Lincoln’s casket, as well as a funeral ribbon worn by Henry Lane.
* Brass sword used by Henry Lane in the Mexican War.
* Black broadside sword used by James Atwell Mount in the Civil War. (Mount became a governor of Indiana in the 1870s. He was from Shannondale, Montgomery Co.)
* Winslow Homer sketch of his friend, General Lew Wallace.
* Battle flag that belonged to the 11th Indiana Company C commanded by Lew Wallace.
* Photo of General Lew Wallace in Civil War Uniform.