Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum documents the life of the 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, and the course of the American Civil War. Combining traditional scholarship with 21st-century showmanship techniques, the popular museum ranks as one of the most visited presidential libraries. Its Library, in addition to housing an extensive collection on Lincoln, also houses the collection of the Illinois State Historical Library, founded by the state in 1889. The Library and Museum is located in the state capital of Springfield, Illinois and is overseen by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, an agency of state government. It is not formally affiliated with the U.S. National Archives and its system of Presidential Libraries...
The museum contains life-size dioramas of Lincoln's boyhood home, areas of the White House, the presidential box at Ford's Theater, and the settings of key events in Lincoln's life, as well as pictures, artifacts and other memorabilia. Original artifacts are changed from time to time, but the collection usually includes items like the original hand written Gettysburg Address, a signed Emancipation Proclamation, his glasses and shaving mirror, Mary Todd Lincoln's music box, items from her White House china, her wedding dress, and more. The permanent exhibits are divided into two different stages of the President's life, called "Journey One: The Pre-Presidential Years", and "Journey Two: The Presidential Years", and the third, the "Treasures Gallery"; these three can all be rented for $250. As far as temporary exhibits are concerned(these will rotate after several months or so), as of May 2013, the main one dealt with weapons and medicine of the Civil War. A temporary exhibit with artifacts on Lincoln's rival, Stephen A. Douglas, opened in early June 2013.
One of the museum's permanent exhibits, Campaign of 1860, features late "Meet the Press" anchor Tim Russert. In addition to its exhibits, the Lincoln Museum runs two special effects theater shows, Lincoln's Eyes and Ghosts of the Library. Both shows run several times an hour.
In order for the museum to ensure an adequate exhibit space for the Abraham Lincoln Taper Collection, of over 1,500 items, the Library Foundation started a campaign asking 5,000 attorneys (and any other interested parties wishing to commemorate the legal profession, to which Lincoln belonged) to donate $5,000, payable over five years and (to the extent allowed) tax deductible, in return for a limited edition cold cast bronze bust of Lincoln by American sculptor Marla Friedman.
The "Under His Hat: Discovering Lincoln's Story From Primary Sources", is the home of the Lincoln Collection Digitization Project, a thematic online resource that features a 360-degree online view of his hat (the actual hat is, as of May 2013, also on display at the museum).
Burbank, California based BRC Imagination Arts, led by Bob Rogers, was responsible for all of the permanent exhibits and presentations, music, theaters, lifelike figures and full-immersion historical settings."