Lincoln Memorial Garden was founded in 1936 by Mrs.Harriet Knudson, a member of the Springfield Civic Garden Club as a living memorial to Abraham Lincoln. All the plants found at the Garden are native to the three states Lincoln lived in – Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. In the early 1930’s, the city of Springfield donated land along the shore of Lake Springfield for the Garden and the Garden Clubs of Illinois agreed to sponsor the project. Mrs.Knudson then secured the services of one of the country’s foremost landscape architects, Jens Jensen, to design the Garden.