Artifacts from Abraham Lincoln's time as Springfield lawyer up for auction

Artifacts can bring history to life, and later this week, a group of items goes up for sale that illuminate part of Abraham Lincoln's life before becoming president, when he was working in Illinois.

A simple wooden table Lincoln used when he was a lawyer in Springfield is part of the collection of items up for auction on Thursday in Dallas. According to some reports, he wrote at least part of his "House Divided" speech at the desk while he was running for the U.S. Senate in 1858.

"It's everything that we'd actually want to see for a Lincoln-owned piece," said Caroline Tamposi, a consignment director for Heritage Auctions. "Abraham Lincoln, it is true, he was a man who did not care about materialistic items. He wouldn't have this, like, fancy empire table. He's very much a utilitarian type of guy."

Tamposi showed the Lincoln artifacts, which include  to CBS News Chicago during a recent stop in Chicago.

"When I hold these documents, it's definitely that feeling of just surreal," she said.

Tamposi said the items paint a different picture of the nation's 16th president than students might have learned in school.

"We think of him as kind of this, you know, prairie lawyer and a little bit simple and nonchalant, and when we actually dive into these cases, we see such a more dynamic, astute lawyer," she said.

For example, one document in the auction is part of Lincoln's dispute with the Illinois Central Railroad over his fee.

"I think it tells us a lot more about the man behind the presidency," Tamposi said.

The auction also includes documents in which Lincoln does an early form of voter research.

"Before polling began, he kind of, he took a newspaper clipping, he figured out what regions he was going to be successful in, which ones he was not going to be, and then which were kind of swing regions. It's very much the way we do polling today, but he did it on his own," Tamposi said.

Mostly the items have been in the hands of one family since shortly after President Lincoln was killed. If all goes well with the sale, soon they'll be in the hands of new owners, but whoever owns them, they offer a different look at an American icon.

"It just gives you such a more intimate feel for history," Tamposi said.

The live auction takes place on Thursday in Dallas, but bidding already is open on the Heritage Auctions website.