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"Treasures of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
by Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein (Editor)
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The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois, houses a trove of invaluable historical resources concerning all aspects of the Prairie State’s past. Treasures of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library commemorates the institution’s 125-year history, as well as its contributions to scholarship and education by highlighting a selection of eighty-five treasures from among more than twelve million items in the library’s collections.
After opening with a historical overview and extensive chronology of the Library, the volume organizes the treasures by various topics, including items that illustrate various locations and materials relating to business, the mid-nineteenth century and the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the oldest items, unusual treasures, ethnicity, and art. From the Gettysburg Address, Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s letters, and Governor Dan Walker’s boots to a Deering Harvester Company catalog, WPA publications, and an Adlai Stevenson I campaign hat, each entry includes a thorough description of the item, one or more images, and a discussion of its history and how the library acquired it, if known. Other treasures include the Thomas Yates General Store daybook, Dubin Pullman car materials, Civil War newspapers, a Lincoln coffin photograph, the Mary Lincoln insanity verdict, the Directory of Sangamon County’s Colored Citizens, andLincoln’s stovepipe hat.
To highlight the academic importance of the Library, nineteen researchers share how study in the Library’s collections proved essential to their projects. Although these treasures only scrape the surface of the vast holdings of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, together they epitomize the rich, varied, and sometimes quirky resources available to both serious scholars and curious tourists alike at this valuable cultural institution.
2015 ISHS Superior Achievement Award
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published September 4th 2014 by Southern Illinois University Press (first published January 1st 2014)
ISBN 080933335X (ISBN13: 9780809333356)"
Wikipedia (
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"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."