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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Ind. Gov't. - Competition fierce for Fort Wayne's Lincoln Museum
Updating these earlier ILB entries, Angela Mapes Turner reports today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
The local group fighting to keep Fort Wayne’s Lincoln Museum collection in Indiana faces powerhouse opposition from four major Washington institutions to relocate the material.[Updated] This story by Jacqueline Trescott appeared in June 25th Washington Post.The Library of Congress, the National Museum of American History, Ford’s Theatre and President Lincoln’s Cottage have formed a partnership to obtain the collection from the museum, which closes Monday after 77 years. * * *
Early this month, the Allen County Public Library and the Indiana State Museum announced a coalition to keep the collection in Indiana. Those organizations are supported by the Indiana Historical Society, Indiana State Library and Friends of the Lincoln Museum.
Ian Rolland, former chairman of the Lincoln Financial Group and leader of the local drive, said he wasn’t surprised to hear the Washington players were in the game.
“We knew the competition was going to be tough,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be afraid of that kind of competition.”
Those hoping to bring the collection to Washington tout the area’s ability to draw large crowds of tourists.
“There really isn’t any group that can match the visitorship and financial stability of the Washington group,” said John Sellers, a Lincoln specialist at the Library of Congress.
Sellers calls Washington the “natural place” for the collection.
“It is where Lincoln became famous and made his mark,” Sellers said. “It is a natural place because the assassination happened here. It is a natural place because of the wealth of material related to Lincoln and the assassination.”
Those same arguments, though, can be turned around in Indiana’s favor, said Geoff Paddock of Fort Wayne, a board member of the Friends of the Lincoln Museum.
Lincoln spent his formative years in the Midwest and the collection was put together in Indiana, Paddock said.
The foundation board plans to narrow the proposals in the fall, invite the finalists to meet with the curators in Fort Wayne and then make site visits to the competing groups. A representative of the foundation said applicants ranged from small, not-for-profit institutions interested in one or two items to the nationally known institutions.
Paddock believes a visit would go a long way to convincing the Lincoln Financial Foundation that Indiana should be the collection’s home.
“A site visit would give us an opportunity to really showcase our proposal,” he said.
The museum’s collection, estimated at $20 million, includes a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and a signed copy of the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery, one of 350 documents in the collection signed by Lincoln.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 25, 2008 02:26 PM
Posted to Indiana Government