Lincoln Casket Replica In Nebraska

One of the things I most like about being an Abraham Lincoln blogger is that I come across some weird items which fascinate me, and at least hopefully hold the interest of my readers. Just today, I stumbled upon this little article from the McCook Daily Gazette (Nebraska) which talks about a replica of Abraham Lincoln's casket being on display at the local mortuary.

The photo shows the casket. It's one of three replica Lincoln caskets made by the Batesville Casket Company. It supposedly is an exact replica, but I have no idea if it truly is. There is also a replica casket on display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Thank goodness they don't have a replica Abraham Lincoln body in the casket. That would've been too weird even for me!

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Lincoln Letter Could Bring $5 Million At Auction

On April 3rd, Sotheby's auction house in New York, NY is holding an auction of incredible presidential letters and other documents. Apparently, the gem of this auction will be a letter President Lincoln wrote in response to a petition sent to him by Massachusetts school children, pleading with him to free the "little slave children." The petition, titled "Children's Petition to the President asking him to free all the little slave children in this country," was signed by 195 boys and girls and was sent to Lincoln in April 1864.

Lincoln replied at once, on April 5, 1864. In the letter, Lincoln wrote that he had a passionate desire to see the end of slavery, but that he felt he didn't have the power, but that God did. He wrote: "and that, while I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do it." Eloquent as always.

The image on the right is of the letter. Sotheby's estimates it could bring as much as $5 million, breaking the previous record ($3.1 million) for a Lincoln manuscript or letter. Wow.

Story and photo come from AuburnPub.com of Auburn, New York. Auburn was the home of Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward.

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Abraham Lincoln In Post-It Notes?

Here's Abraham Lincoln as you've never seen him. A senior art student at Illinois Wesleyan University, Chris Killham, has created this unusual "portrait" of Abraham Lincoln entirely from Post-It notes. Killham created this work, titled "Hugs & Kisses, Abe" by using over 6,000 Post-Its of varying colors, then pasting them on a total of 105 poster boards. He created it after his art professor suggest that he work in larger formats. Unfortunately, the work has already been disassembled.

You can read the full article here, courtesy of Pantagraph.com

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History Detectives Visit Abraham Lincoln Museum In Springfield

Here's a fun little story from the Springfield, Illinois Journal-Register concerning the arrival to Springfield of the team from "The History Detectives" television show produced by PBS. The team, including the show's host, Wes Cowan (seen on the Antiques Roadshow as a specialist in Americana) came to Springfield to investigate whether some old song sheets discovered by an Oregon couple might have belonged to Abraham and Mary Lincoln. It seems that a couple of the sheets contain what appear to be a couple of Lincoln signatures. The photo I've included depicts Cowan (on the left) interviewing Jean Baker, the prominent Mary Todd Lincoln scholar.

Sadly, the historians believe the signatures aren't real and that the provenance provided to the couple who bought the sheets is bogus. Still, the story is intriguing and I hope I catch it. Just last season, the show experts came to Springfield to investigate whether a letter supposedly written by Lincoln and purchased at a garage sale in Florida was real. Amazingly, it was. That's the kind of story that keeps someone like me, a Lincoln buff and an antiques nut, searching for the next treasure out there.

I've actually had a couple of dealings with Mr. Cowan, one a good outcome and one less than good. About 10 years ago, I purchased an original 1865 broadside announcing Lincoln's assassination, published by a Canton, Ohio (my hometown) newspaper. I was thrilled to get it. Just a couple of years ago, I actually called Wes to have him check what appeared to be an original Department of War notice that John Wilkes Booth had been shot. The notice was coming up for auction the next day in a town not far from me. He told me the notice "looked good" and then asked me where the town was. BIG mistake. The next day, I attended the auction and the buyer (certainly not myself) didn't hesitate to spend $2,000 on the winning bid. I was suspicious that it might have been a representative from Cowan's business.

I was correct. I next saw this wonderful "Booth Shot" broadside was listed for auction on Cowan's business (Historic Americana) website. It brought over $8,000. So by calling him, I inadvertently led him to a treasure which he made a killing on. Perhaps slightly unethical, but all is fair in the collectibles trade. Still, I love watching his shows.

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Continued Fallout Over Closure Of Lincoln Museum

I've been somewhat remiss in keeping up with my posts over the past few days or so. We here in Northeastern Ohio were nearly buried on Friday night and Saturday by over 14 inches of snow and I've been trying to keep up with shoveling, etc. In the meantime, though, I've been keeping informed about the ramifications of the scheduled closure of the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The eminent and nationally known Lincoln expert, Harold Holzer, published an impassioned editorial on March 9, urging the operators of the musem (Lincoln National) to find a home for the valuable and irreplaceable collection of Lincolnania. As Holzer points out, the museum serves as a primary source of information to countless authors, researchers, and fans of Lincoln. It's an excellent editorial and I urge my readers to read it.

From an article published yesterday, March 10, by a Fort Wayne television station comes word that the Lincoln Museum Board Of Directors has voted to try every way possible to keep as much of the collection in Fort Wayne as possible. They will present a plan with various proposals to Lincoln National, based in Philadelphia over the next few months.

Like any good politician, the mayor of Fort Wayne, Tom Henry, weighed in with a statement of his own concerning the closure of the museum. Unfortunately, he probably won't have any impact whether the collection stays or goes.

Finally, there is yet another hard-hitting editorial in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, strongly criticizing Lincoln National for not only turning its back on a community, but for also shutting access to perhaps the finest collection of Lincolnania publicly available. The author, Scott Bushnell, implies (with justification in my opinion) that corporate greed on the part of new management at Lincoln National is the primary reason for the closure.

Of course, it remains to be seen what effect, if any, these pleas and proposed plans will have on the decision by Lincoln National. Let's hope that the management at Lincoln National sees the light and remembers the goodwill and corporate citizenship it has established over the decades. Only an American company, with its focus on the short-term bottom line, would cut off access to such a National treasure.

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The Closing OF The Lincoln Museum In Fort Wayne, Indiana

This is a follow-up to the announcement this week that the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana is closing after being open to the public for 77 years.

Today's Fort Wayne Journal Gazette contains a somewhat moving editorial about the closure, lamenting what it means to Fort Wayne, to small cities around the country, and especially to Lincoln scholars. I never realized the sheer amount of documentation, books, brochures and other items the collection contains, numbering something like 230,000 in all!

I mentioned in my previous post that Lincoln Financial Group is going to try to digitize the documents and share or donate the other items in the collection. Still, it's a major loss to the Lincoln enthusiast community.

One can't help but wonder what the real reasons are for the closure, but I suspect it's due to declining profits or a desire to boost the bottom line at Lincoln Financial. One would have thought instead of just closing the museum, period, that Lincoln Financial could have sought public or private money in an attempt to keep the collection available to everyone. Instead, it has chosen to impact Fort Wayne, its citizens, and the Lincoln community of researchers adversely. That's a shame. By taking this action, Lincoln Financial has no doubt hurt its own corporate goodwill.

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A Bad Week For Lincoln Enthusiasts

This week has brought some unfortunate news to enthusiasts of Abraham Lincoln. Earlier this week, it was announced that the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana is closing its doors this June. The museum, run by the Lincoln Financial Group, has suffered from declining attendance for a while now. The museum's collection includes a shawl worn by Mary Todd Lincoln, some toys played with by the Lincoln children, a cane used by Abe himself, and numerous photos. The prize of its collection has to be a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln. All said, there are some 79 items in the collection. Unfortunately, roughly 20 employees at the museum will lose their jobs as a result of this action.

There is a slight bright spot, though. Lincoln Financial will explore possible ways of sharing this wonderful collection through exhibitions both real and virtual. Let's hope that the public can have continued access. It would be a shame if these treasures become hidden from public view.

The other unfortunate piece of news for us this week comes from Professor Brian Dirck of Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. For a few years now, he's run the premier Abraham Lincoln blog, the A.Lincoln Blog, at http://www.alincolnblog.blogspot.com/. His blog is extremely well-written and is an outstanding resource for people who wish to know more about our nation's 16th president. On what is his last post, Professor Dirck states that he will erase this blog within a few more days. Let us hope that he changes his mind and leaves all of his posts up. It would be a great loss of learned insight into Lincoln and his life, career, and presidency. We wish him well, but lament the loss of such an excellent blog!

When I started my own Lincoln blog a few months ago, I had no idea that another one already existed. I've tried very hard to avoid duplication of his efforts by checking his blog before I posted any information to mine. I've personally learned a great deal by reading his blog. While I have a good deal of knowledge about Lincoln, my level of understanding, I'm sure, pales in comparison to Professor Dirck's.

I have a fair number of readers of this blog, and the number who are return visitors is growing. I just want to assure you that I will maintain and continue to add to this blog in the hopes of informing and entertaining those who drop by.

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