A Visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum

In October we drove south to spend fall break with our children and grandchildren and we made a couple of pit stops on the way.  Our first stop was the La Crosse River Marsh, our second stop was Galena, Illinois, and our last stop was the Land of Lincoln:  Springfield Illinois!  Last week I wrote about the National Park Historic Site:  The Lincoln Home.  This week I want to share about our tour of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and next week I will cover his gravesite.

The museum is located in downtown Springfield, and only 0.7 miles from the National Park Historic Site:  The Lincoln Home.  The museum is housed in the building you see below and the Presidential Library is located across the street.  This post will only cover the museum because we did not have to time to see the library.  Your admission ticket covers both the museum and the library if you have time to visit both.

The moment I walked into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum I was blown away.  For some reason I was expecting it to just be this stuffy, boring place with just lots of stuff to read.  I had no idea it would be so entertaining!  The wax figures and displays were of a quality I'd expect to see at Disney World.  It made learning fun and I think a great place to take kids too!

The first thing we did was entered this HUGE movie theater.  I could not believe how grand it was.  And it was totally empty.  There were probably only ten people in the theater.  The movie was INCREDIBLE!  It was about the life of Lincoln of course, and included three screens with state-of-the-art special effects.  Again, it reminded me of a movie you'd expect to see at Disney World.  When canons boomed, smoke appeared in the theater.  Holograms made it seem like you were watching a live person.  It was incredible.

They also do live performances in this theater with professional, costumed actors.  On the day we were there the live performance was on Walt Whitman's poetry.  Unfortunately we didn't have time to do everything, so we skipped that one.

After the movie was over, we started at the very beginning:  Abraham's log cabin in Little Pigeon Creek, Indiana.

This is an exact replica of the cabin located in Indiana.

Abraham Lincoln had humble beginnings.  He was uneducated, but he taught himself to read at age nine.  His family of six shared a one room cabin.  The parents slept on the bed pictured on the far left, the girls slept on the mattress on the floor, and the boys shared the loft.

In 1828 Lincoln was hired to ferry a cargo down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.  It was there it is speculated where he might have witnessed the atrocities of slavery for the first time and the seeds of its misery were implanted in his mind.

In 1833 Lincoln moved to New Salem and was a storekeeper, postmaster, and surveyor.   He also studied grammar, math, joined the local debating society and unsuccessfully ran for the state legislature.  It was at this time he also began studying law. 

In 1837 Abraham Lincoln moved to Springfield, Illinois and met his future wife: Mary Ann Todd.

Abraham eventually became a lawyer.  He and Mary had four sons, and all but one son died young.  The youngest two were considered very rumbustious.  Pictured below are the two boys tearing apart Abraham's law office while Mr. Lincoln works on a case.

In 1858 Lincoln challenged Stephen A. Douglass for his seat in the United States Senate.  Lincoln lost this Senate race, but his eloquent anti-slavery speeches made him a dark horse presidential candidate in 1860.

Lincoln won the presidency with less than 40% of the popular vote.  Within months, the union began to disintegrate.

When a museum visitor enters the White House portion of the exhibit, one of the first things they see are all the beautiful dresses notable women of that time period wore.  Pictured below is a Mary Lincoln wax figure.  On the sign below her is a photograph showing her wearing the dress on the mannequin.

In addition to wax figure scenes, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum uses beautiful art work to display history.  Pictured below is a painting of when all the troubles began when states began to secede.

This next exhibit was the most surprising and troubling to me.  Pictured on these dark grey walls are actual news articles and political cartoons attacking Abraham and Mary Lincoln.  I had no idea Abraham Lincoln was so hated.  As I walked through this corridor and read all these horrible, slanderous attacks I couldn't help but see the similarities to the time period we are living in.  One could easily remove the word "Lincoln" and replace it with the word "Trump".  The words are exactly the same used by journalists today.  Are we repeating history?

More sorrow enveloped the White House during this time other than the state of the country.  Mary and Abraham's beloved son Willie died of Typhoid at the age of eleven.

Both Mary and Abraham plunged into a deep depression following the death of their son.

The White House kitchen.  I wouldn't mind this kitchen for myself today!

During the summer of 1862 Abraham Lincoln began working on the Emancipation Proclamation.

And of course, it was met with plenty of critics.  Below is pictured one of the many displays that used modern technology.  As you walk under the banners, between the columns on either side are holograms that scream out criticism of the proclamation.

The rest of this portion of the museum deals with the horrible Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's death.

This section shared uniforms of the soldier's and some personal stories.

This War Gallery display was fascinating.  You would look at a historic, authentic photo on the wall then find it on the computer monitor below.  Once you clicked on the photo in the monitor, it would tell the story behind the picture.

Having just been to Galena, Illinois I recognized General Ulysses S. Grant's photo right away so I clicked on that one on the monitor and read the story  in the box on the lower right.

More beautiful art work of a Civil War battle, the lives that were lost, and Lincoln delivering The Gettysburg Address.

The war finally ends and Lincoln is elected.  Pictured below are stories and art work of his re-election, the 2nd Amendment, his inauguration, and more.

And now for the saddest part of the museum;  a display of John Wilkes Booth entering the theatre where Mary and Abraham were enjoying a play.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln moments before his death.

The museum set up an exact replica of the Hall of Representatives in the Old Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois where Lincoln's coffin was presented for its last public viewing. 

It was so sad to walk through this part of the museum.  I can only imagine what the original visitors must have felt.

The last part of the museum we visited was a theatrical experience called the "Ghosts of the Library".  This was just fabulous.  I had no idea it was a live actor until I talked to an employee at the Lincoln gravesite.  I thought it was a hologram, it was so good.  The theater uses Holavision special effects to explain in an entertaining fashion why we save "this old stuff".  Again, it was as good as anything you'd experience at Disney.

If you haven't been to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum I highly encourage you to go.  It truly is a delightful educational experience for all ages.

The museum is open daily from 9:00 to 5:00 and costs $15.00 for an Adult ticket.  They have senior discounts, military discounts, and student discounts and of course, children are much cheaper depending on their age.  So CHECK IT OUT!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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