CORTLAND, NEW YORK—Scott Stull of the State University of New York, Cortland, and Michael “Bodhi” Rogers of Ithaca College have used lasers to create a 3-D map of President Lincoln’s Cottage, located on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. The cottage, a 34-room Gothic revival mansion, served as Lincoln’s summer retreat from 1861 until his assassination in 1865, and was where he finished writing the Emancipation Proclamation. “This was a very important place for Lincoln because you could get away from the press of the crowd. And the design of the house was very well situated to get the summer breezes. The whole south side of the house opens up for some accentuated cross breezes from off this long hill,” Stull said in a press release. The house was also used by Presidents James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Chester A. Arthur. The team will next assist with the mapping of President Ulysses S. Grant’s retreat near Saratoga Springs, New York. “Looking at two presidential cottages is like looking at a very specific aspect of society, but they are one of the manifestations of how the political elite lived,” Stull explained. To read more about laser mapping, go to "The Past in High-Def."