One hundred and sixty-two years ago Nov. 19, Abraham Lincoln delivered his incomparable Gettysburg Address at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery. In the years before, the designer of the cemetery had left his imprint on Illinois.

William Saunders, one of the foremost landscape architects of the nineteenth century, designed a number of notable landmarks in Illinois in the 1850s and 1860s. Among them are two of Chicago’s major cemeteries, Rosehill (1859) and Graceland (1860).

Saunders also designed Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, where Lincoln rests, as well as the Quad at Illinois State University, a striking feature of the campus.

Though he had a national reputation, some of Saunders’ finest works are in Illinois. Born on Dec. 7, 1822, in St. Andrews, Scotland, Saunders w

See Full Page