Abraham Lincoln’s Law Office Desk

Abraham Lincoln’s Law Office Desk Circa 1845

Few Americans have been the subject of such enduring fascination as Abraham Lincoln, yet his famously modest way of life left relatively few personal possessions behind. This extraordinary mahogany secretary desk is among the principal surviving furnishings from the Springfield law office of Lincoln & Herndon, where Lincoln practiced during the pivotal years that carried him from the courtroom to the presidency. The desk is confidently believed to appear in an engraved illustration of the office published in the December 1860 issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, created as the nation sought to learn more about its newly elected president.

Handsome yet deliberately practical, the desk reflects the character of Lincoln’s Springfield office. Crafted in mahogany in the late Empire style, the towering secretary features a molded cornice above two recessed-panel doors that open to an interior designed for books and ledgers. A fixed slant-front writing surface and long drawer fitted with period etched-glass knobs rest above baluster-form turned legs. Its restrained design and straightforward construction are characteristic of mid-19th-century Midwestern furniture, while the quality of its mahogany distinguished it among the otherwise utilitarian furnishings of the Lincoln & Herndon office.

Lincoln formed his partnership with William H. Herndon in 1844, beginning a professional relationship that would endure until Lincoln left Springfield for Washington in 1861. Herndon later became one of the most important early chroniclers of Lincoln’s life, preserving firsthand recollections and interviewing those who had known him. He continued practicing law in Springfield and eventually partnered with Alfred Orendorff, who retained several furnishings and documents when Herndon retired in 1879. This desk subsequently descended through generations of the Orendorff family, remaining largely unknown to Lincoln scholars and rarely exhibited for more than a century. Preserved with this remarkable provenance and documented in Lincoln’s office on the eve of his presidency, it represents an exceptional tangible connection to the legal career that shaped one of America’s most consequential leaders.

86 3/4" high x 41 1/4" wide x 31" deep

Provenance:
Lincoln & Herndon Law Office, 1844–1861
Herndon & Zane Law Office, 1861–circa 1868
Herndon & Orendorff Law Office, circa 1867–circa 1877
Orendorff & Creighton Law Office, 1879–1885
Orendorff & Patton Law Office, 1885–1909
Alfred Orendorff (1845–1909)
Lydia Edna Orendorff Macpherson (1885–1977)
John F. Macpherson (1916–1999) and Julia Orendorff Macpherson Webster (1913–1995), co-owners after 1977
Thence by descent
M.S. Rau, New Orleans

Literature:
Christopher A. Schnell, “Stovepipe Hat and Quill Pen: The Artifacts of Abraham Lincoln’s Law Practice,” Springfield, Illinois: The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, circa 2000, pp. 5–13
“The Law Offices of Abraham Lincoln,” American Civil War Chronicles, December 22, 2020
Hon. Henry S. Cohn, “Lincoln’s Law Office,” Connecticut Lawyer 35, no. 3, January/February 2024, pp. 24–27, Connecticut Bar Association
Paul M. Angle, “Where Lincoln Practiced Law,” Lincoln Centennial Association Papers, 1927, pp. 17–43
Henry B. Rankin, ed., Lincoln Memorial Collection, Springfield, Illinois: Privately published, 1887, pp. 105–110
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, December 1860, p. 74 (illustrated)

Exhibited:
R. R. Donnelley Gallery, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, Honest Abe of the West, October 10, 2009–February 15, 2010