Stunning, Appealing, Troubling: The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s Permanent Exhibit

Lincoln and his cabinet. Copyright 2006 Abrah am Lincoln Presidential Museum. All rights reserved Stunning,Appealing, Troubling 7be Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum' s Permanent Exhibit Gerald J.Prokopowicz L ong before it opened,the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum ( ALPLM)in Springfield,I]. linois, was the subject of heated controversy over whether its permanent exhibit would be too " Hollywood." 1 At its worst, the debate descended into a carieature of serious public history questions.2 The website of the exhibit' s designers, BRC Imagination Arts, characterized traditional museums as " old stuff in glass boxes and stale rooms" and assured readers that it knew how to produce " experiencedriven adventures" where " truth and accuracy are not displaced"but rather become part of great compelling story, whether it be that of Abraham Lincoln,or the Ford Motor Company,or Knott's Berry Farm, or any of the company's many highprofile clients, each of which presumably has · a great and compelling story. On the other side of the argument,playing the role ofprofessorial curmudgeon,was John Y. Simon,professor of history at Southern Illinois UniversityCarbondale and longtime editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Papers,who accused the designers ofcreating a hall full oflifesize mannequins ( or " rubber Lincolns") and argued that history museums are not for children,anyway.3 In one sense,the debate is now over;the designers won. The museum was built their way and in the first eight months after it opened in April 2005 it drew ne·arly half a million visitors:But in a larger sense,the debate continues not over whether visitors will come, but over what they will learn. I went to the museum in February 2006 to see for myself. The first 34 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY impression the museum creates upon entrance is the comfortable sensation ofbeing in a place familiar to almost ever American: a moderately upscale suburban shopping mall. From the circular visitor service area, one sees through a door to the left the museum store's spacious aisles and handsome wood shelves neatly piled , vith clothing for sale. Looking down a corridor to the main exhibit hall, there is the central plaza, with indoor ( artificial)trees towering over the noisy crowds, the Lincoln family ( lifesize )in the middle, : ind walls lined with theater marquees ind various gallery entrances. Where to go first? Like , i shopping mall, the museum leaves entirely up to the visitor which spaces to enter:ind in what order. I chose to see first the multimedia presentation, Lincolns Eyes," because it happened to be about to start. After the show I asked a volunteer docent which gallery to visit first,and wais told that officially I could start anywhere, but ( in a conspiritorial whisper)that really the Lincoln cabin was the best place to begin. The Lincoln cabin replica is the start of " Journey I: 1[ he Prepresi dential Years. 1[ he exhibit includes a replica ofthe interior of the Lincoln Berry store in New Salem, Illinois, a replica of a slave auctioii, · a replica of the front room of the Lincoln home in Springfield,Illinois, and a replica of the Lincoln law ofTice located there. The settings are detailed and the lifesize figures are impressive in their r' erisimilitude. After thirty ininutes of absorbing the atm) sphere of the " Journev and reading the relatively sparse labels,the friend with whom I was touring pointed at a cracked tombstone Iving on its side in a glass case. It ivas L J inscribed " Edward B. and was the first artifact we had seen, or · at least it appeared to be; no label we could find itidicited Trhether this was the authentic grare marker of the Lincolns'second son, or another replica. Ihe dominance of replicas over artifacts continues throughout the exhibit. Some of the replicas are magnificent,like that of Lincoln' s cabia net room, filled with lifesize figures of Lincoln and his advisors and cleverly explained to vistors by a firstpersoti interpreter playing the role of Francis Carpenter,the artist who spent six months at the White House painting the very scene here recreated. Others are misleading, like that of the box where the Lincolns sat at...