Study Panel Report on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

[January 08, 2015]  SPRINGFIELD - A report of the study panel established to examine issues and concerns surrounding the governance of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) in relation to its parent agency, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA), was released on January 7. Copies of the report were provided to the respective chairs of the IHPA Board of Trustees, the ALPLM Advisory Board, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation for distribution to their members, and to members of the Illinois General Assembly, where hearings on the proposed legislation were held on October 1 and November 19, 2014.

The study came about as the result of proposed legislation (House Bill 3638 and Senate Bill 218) to create a separate state agency to govern the ALPLM. The report was produced for the IHPA, the ALPLM Advisory Board, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, the organizations responsible for policy making, program development, education, and fundraising at ALPLM. Two representatives from each organization and three independent experts on museums and research libraries comprised the panel.

The report concludes that establishing ALPLM as a separate agency is unlikely to solve the complex problems that led to the introduction of the pending legislation. Rather, separation of the ALPLM from the IHPA would weaken both organizations and “would result in a significant lost opportunity for the state,” depriving it of important synergies between the ALPLM and the other historical sites, memorials and programs that exist under the IHPA.

Instead, the report urges integration of ALPLM into a reorganized IHPA, to achieve “a better balance between the political culture that created ALPLM, the bureaucratic culture that has managed ALPLM for the past decade, and a museum and research library culture that must assume a higher profile in the [institution’s] future.”

The author of the report, Dr. Brent Glass, director emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, argues that changes in the current governing structure of both IHPA and ALPLM could provide Illinois “a nationally recognized public history agency with the resources—human, physical, and cultural—commensurate with its rich and varied heritage.”

The report’s conclusions and recommendations were unanimously endorsed by the study panel at its meeting on December 22. Co-chairs of the panel, Donna Sack of the Association of Midwest Museums, and Bernard Reilly, of the Center for Research Libraries, expressed confidence that the report will shed new light on the complex issues surrounding ALPLM governance and operations and their hope that it proves useful to state legislators in considering the pending legislation.

[Donna Sack/Bernard Reilly, Study Panel Co-Chairs]

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Governance Study (21-page Pdf)