Area students send cards to troops

[December 14, 2011]  SPRINGFIELD -- Students from more than 130 Illinois schools, including Jefferson School in Lincoln and the Hartsburg-Emden FFA, recently made their own postcards to send to Illinois soldiers serving overseas. This was part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum's "Boys in Blue" postcard promotion that concluded last week.

More than 600 library and museum guests also took part by purchasing "Boys in Blue" postcards depicting Illinois' Civil War soldiers.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum started the postcard promotion on Veterans Day and continued accepting the greetings through Dec. 7. Nine large boxes of postcards were sent to three Illinois units serving in Afghanistan: the 1-14th Agribusiness Development Team, 1644th Transportation Company and the 661 Engineer Company.

The submissions from Illinois schoolchildren complemented the postcards that were available to library and museum visitors for the campaign. The purchased postcards were produced from images in the ALPLM's collections that are part of the exhibit of the same name in the presidential library. The exhibit features faces, letters, sketches and songs of men who fought in Illinois regiments during the Civil War.

For more information about the presidential library and museum or the "Boys in Blue," visit www.presidentlincoln.org.

[Text from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum news release]