Referred to in the play as the Great Man, Parks frequently alludes to the historical realities and myths about Lincoln. Like the Great Man, the Foundling Father is "tall and thinly built" with long legs and large hands and feet. He even takes to wearing a false wart like Lincoln’s wart. There are frequent allusions to Lincoln’s beard as the Foundling Father keeps several beards in a box with the initials A.L. on the lid. He also complains that wearing a stovepipe hat inside is historically inaccurate but that people don’t like it when Lincoln appears hatless. The play references the myth of Lincoln’s log cabin as a "shape around which their entire lives and their posterity shapes itself." Most prominently, the play continually repeats the scene of Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth as the Foundling Father allows people to shoot him and reenact the historic moment. The words of the Gettysburg Address and references to the hole in Lincoln’s head from the shooting also dominate the historical allusions made. Supposed quotations from the assassination that are quoted and repeated in the play include: