Museum Brings Lincoln to Life
26 minutes ago
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - In most museums, Abraham Lincoln is discussed in hushed voices and illustrated with sepia-toned photos and marble statues that give him a saintly air. The new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum doesn't buy into that reverence — it brings Lincoln to life with booming cannons, holographic ghosts and latex statues so lifelike the arms have freckles. It shakes visitors up and shows them all sides of the former president.
The Lincoln presented here is not the one-dimensional man most museumgoers know from the materials at the National Park Service, the National Archives or the Smithsonian Institution.
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"We want to totally surround you, involve you in the emotions, in the triumphs and the tragedies of the Lincoln family and our nation," said Bob Rogers, whose company, BRC Imagination Arts, designed the museum's exhibits.
The library portion of the $145 million complex houses the world's largest collection of Lincoln documents and artifacts, from letters he wrote as a young lawyer to an original copy of the Gettysburg Address.
The museum side is geared toward the general public, and it grabs the attention of adults and children alike with myth-busting stories and special effects over 40,000 square feet, twice the size of any other presidential museum.
An introductory film uses smoke machines, vibrating seats and the roar of cannons to bring the Civil War to life while summing up both Lincoln's life and the nation's painful divisions...
Note that the Rappin' Abe Lincoln exhibit was removed and returned to the Hall O' Presidents exhibit at Duff Gardens.
― kingfish, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 17:36 (twenty years ago)