Lincoln Heritage Museum to unveil two new exhibits
Displays mark 150th anniversaries of Lincoln’s assassination and founding of Lincoln College
 

[May 23, 2015]  LINCOLN - The Lincoln Heritage Museum will unveil two new exhibits on January 26, 2015.

“Now He Belongs to the Ages” commemorates the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The exhibit includes an 1865 pallbearer’s glove, a broadside showing the route of President Lincoln’s funeral train, and a replica of the Derringer pistol Booth to shoot President Lincoln.

“When John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, that one single act altered the course of a nation. The year 2015 marks the remembrance of one of our nation’s greatest tragedies, the first assassination of an American president. This exhibit displays items that provide insights to the events that took place during and immediately following President Lincoln’s assassination. In addition there are several pieces of literature, artifacts and art which cover the reaction of people caught by surprise of losing such an important leader in a time of crisis and transition,” said Museum Director Ron Keller. “To use the words of Henry Hawes, a Logan County Union soldier who wrote in a letter to a family member, ‘Every honest person must stamp the act as one of the blackest days’.”

Assistant Director Anne Moseley, who constructed the exhibit, remarked, “The items in this collection tell the story of a nation that mourned for their friend and president. By examining these items, we see how the nation’s love for Lincoln began with his tragic assassination.”

The “Lincoln College, Embracing our Past, Empowering our Future” exhibit kicks off the celebration of Lincoln College’s sesquicentennial. Chartered in 1865 and named for President Lincoln, the College has been an important institution in Lincoln and Logan County for the past 150 years. The exhibit includes “Faces of Lincoln College” featuring photos of students and faculty who made the campus special and pictures of student athletes and some of the sports teams over the years, as well as unique items like a hand stitched pillowcase embroidered with the beautifully sewn names of members of the class of 1902.

According to Moseley, the exhibit will give visitors the opportunity to see how the college was founded and see the growth and impact the college has had on its students and community.

The “Now He Belongs to the Ages” and “Lincoln College, Embracing our Past, Empowering our Future” exhibits will open Monday, January 26, and be on display through December 2015. The Lincoln Heritage Museum is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Museum. Admission is $5 for Adults (16 and over) and $3 for youth (age 7 to 15); children under 6 are free. For more information, contact the Lincoln Heritage Museum at [phone] or e-mail [e-mail].

The mission of the Lincoln Heritage Museum is to interpret for the pubic the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the world in which he lived—particularly as it pertained to Illinois—and to be an academic resource for students from elementary school through adulthood.

[Tracy Bergin, Lincoln College/Lincoln Heritage Museum]