Artifacts to be sealed in Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library safe viewed 

[SEPT. 21, 2004]  SPRINGFIELD -- The Capital Development Board, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency offered the news media a rare opportunity Monday to see the artifact storage safe at the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and the Lincoln Collection that is stored inside. Once the library opens this fall, only library staff will be allowed inside the safe, although the public, at any time, will be able to see many select pieces of the Lincoln Collection in the adjacent museum, which is scheduled for completion in spring 2005.

The artifacts include the recently donated presidential portfolio, in which Abraham Lincoln carried drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation. The portfolio is "as extraordinary a contribution as has ever been made" to the library, said Richard Norton Smith, director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

The Capital Development Board oversaw the construction of the artifact safe, using guidelines developed by Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The safe and the entire basement area, where the rest of the library's 12 million original artifacts and documents pertaining to all aspects of Illinois history are stored, is kept at a constant temperature of 65 degrees with a relative humidity of 43 percent.

"We instructed the architects and contractors to design and build the safe using strict environmental guidelines to ensure the artifacts would be preserved for future generations," said Anthony D. Rossi, executive director of the Capital Development Board. "The 15-by-9-foot safe is part of a special secure area for the state's 47,000-item Lincoln Collection, and its size was dictated by the current number of artifacts with room for future acquisitions."

The safe is made of reinforced concrete walls with a bank vault-style door. A state-of-the-art Inergen gas fire suppression system provides extra protection for the artifacts in the vault. The Inergen system uses inert gas to suppress flames; regular fire suppression systems use water, which could destroy or damage some artifacts. The Inergen system suffocates the flames, and the gases will not leave an acidic residue that could damage the artifacts. The vault has a minimum fire rating of four hours, which means a fire could be burning outside for four hours and everything in the vault would still be undamaged.

The Capital Development Board is the construction management agency for the state of Illinois and oversees the construction of new state facilities such as prisons, colleges, mental health hospitals and state parks. The agency's work is located throughout the state and ranges in size and scope from the construction of the $115 million Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum complex to the renovation of a $75,000 salt storage facility for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

[News release from the Capital Development Board]