ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Hodgenville, Ky.
At the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, a granite-and-marble memorial building rests on the site of Sinking Spring, the farm that Lincoln's parents bought in 1808. Inside the enormous monument, there's a log cabin representative of the one in which Lincoln was born a year later. The national park has hiking trails, picnic tables, and a visitors center with exhibits on Lincoln's early life, including the family Bible. Ten miles away is Lincoln's boyhood home, 228-acre Knob Creek Farm, which became part of the park in 2001. 2995 Lincoln Farm Rd., 270/358-3137, nps.gov/abli, free.

WHITNEY M. YOUNG, Simpsonville, Ky.
Young served as president of the National Urban League for a decade, worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr., served as an advisor on racial matters to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. He was born in a two-story house on the campus of the Lincoln Institute (a vocational and teacher-training school for African-Americans), where his father was a faculty member and later president. A tour of the Whitney M. Young Birthplace and Childhood Home includes papers, awards, and photos of him with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. 8460 Shelbyville Rd., 502/585-4733, cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ky2.htm, free, by appointment.