The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library And Museum Sneak Peek

We had a chance to visit the new Lincoln Museum located in downtown Springfield, Illinois this evening. Although some exhibits are not quite finished yet, the musuem staff felt confident enough to show it off to staff and family tonight. The Treasure Gallary featuring items owned by Lincoln and is family is still not finished. However, it will be up and running in plenty of time before the scheduled official opening on April 16, 2005.

Both the libary and the museum buildings are spectacular. They are well designed. The furnishings are beautiful. They are very well done. Kudos to everyone involved.

Their web site touts a combination of showmanship with scholarship. The museum certainly fits the showmanship side.

In fact showmanship gets a grade A. The two multi visual presentations we saw Ghosts of the Library and Lincoln's Eyes lean heavily toward special effects and less toward historical content. Ghosts features a process called Holavision. Holavision allows a live actor to interact with smoke and ghost Lincoln during the show. It is live special effects and done very convincingly. During the Lincoln's Eyes presentation the floor shakes, cannons fire, and your seat jumps. In the meantime the show tells the Lincoln story with an emphasis on the controversy surrounding the Emancipation Proclamation all in 20 minutes.

Content gets a D. Now the emphasis of showmanship and the inevitable comparison and criticism that the museum is too close to Disney World has some merit. But we don't think that this was the purpose of creating the museum. It is really a non-historical, dare we say dumbed down, popular approach to Lincoln and his time with Scholars have the library and its vast collection to use. Families and tourists have the museum to visit and enjoy. Each building serves its audience well.

We understand that the museum will have a $7.50 admission charge. Visiting every exhibit and viewing every show should take an average visitor less than two hours. Setting aside the appropriateness of charging and admission to a state owned facility, we believe that the museum will have tough time justifying the cost for such a short visit. However in their defense the Clinton Presidential Center charges $7.00 and we bet there isn't one cannon fired in the place.