Very good, Roger, Tad evidently visited this place - now, can you tell me what place? The "where" should be easy (and it's the only German city with a skyscraper skyline deserving to be called that).

In The Last Lincolns: The Rise and Fall of a Great American Family by Charles Lachman it says that Tad visited the Frankfurt zoo.

Kudos, Roger, that is correct! The first building was/is the office building and restaurant (the original one was also designed to shelter some animals in winter), the other zoo image shows the house that housed birds of prey.
The Frankfurt zoo was founded in 1858. Here are some more contemporary images, and those who speak German might find the descriptions from the 1860 zoo guide interesting: http://www.zoo-frankfurt.de/unser-zoo/ge...n-zoo.html

Roger, you win either the book or the DVD "Serengeti Shall Not Die", both equally fascinating and most touching, written/directed in 1959 by Prof. Dr. Dr. B. Grzimek, the zoo's director from 1945-1974. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/film/291/...t+Die.html
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&x=0&ref_...bileweb-20

Thank you, Eva! Knowing how Tad loved animals I am sure he loved visiting the zoo.

The well-known civilian commander had a portrait of Abraham Lincoln as well as one of John Brown in his room on the ship he commanded. Who, and what was the name of the vessel?

Karl Friedrich Max von Müller? The Emden?

This is an outstanding guess, Roger, but I am not looking for a navy commander.

Hint #1: I am not looking for a German.
Hint #2: I believe all forum members will know both (commander and vessel) as well as well-educared/well-known read people all around the world will.

Ahab of the Pequod

A very smart guess, Wild Bill, but it's not Captain Ahab either. The sought-after was not an American.

Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ?

Captain Kangaroo and his vessel, the "Bunny Raboo?"

(08-16-2015 03:02 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ?

I second that!

If Captain Nemo was in his stateroom, he might see me. But, not hearing any sounds, I approached. The stateroom was deserted. I pushed the door open. I took a few steps inside. Still the same austere, monastic appearance. Just then my eye was caught by some etchings hanging on the wall, which I hadn't noticed during my first visit. They were portraits of great men of history who had spent their lives in perpetual devotion to a great human ideal: Thaddeus Kosciusko, the hero whose dying words had been Finis Poloniae;* Markos Botzaris, for modern Greece the reincarnation of Sparta's King Leonidas; Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's defender; George Washington, founder of the American Union; Daniele Manin, the Italian patriot; Abraham Lincoln, dead from the bullet of a believer in slavery; and finally, that martyr for the redemption of the black race, John Brown, hanging from his gallows as Victor Hugo's pencil has so terrifyingly depicted.

Brilliant, Gene and Bill!!! Thanks

Jules Verne himself, over the time, owned three ships, all by the name of “Saint Michel”. The first two were smaller sailing boats; the third was a larger ship with a steam engine. (Aboard this vessel he visited my hometown Kiel in 1881.)
   
Gene and Bill, you win a trip aboard the "Nautilus" to a destination of your choice. Maybe here?
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V-BdGchS0yk
Monsieur Verne 's fellow citizen, Monsieur Trénet, will entertain you aboard:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KHYj1-3QrrY

Sounds Great! Do they have a karaoke machine and a dance floor'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE-9GubIZM4

(maybe just the karaoke machine, I think I just threw my hip out)