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What’s there
The Lincoln Museum collection includes the Emancipation Proclamation; a copy of the 13th Amendment signed by President Lincoln; 200,000 newspaper and magazine clippings; 18,000 rare books and pamphlets; 7,000 19th-century prints; 5,000 original 19th-century photographs; 350 other documents signed by Lincoln; 350 19th-century sheet music titles; and about 80 other artifacts.
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Display of hymn book and jaw harp at the Lincoln Museum
Last updated: March 4, 2008 12:17 p.m.

‘Shining star' faced attendance ills

Stefanie Scarlett | The Journal Gazette

News that the Lincoln Museum will close to the public June 30 was met with disappointment by some local officials, who noted that this reflects a growing national trend.

“We’re saddened by the announcement. … The Lincoln Museum is one of the shining stars in our inventory of attractions. But it’s a private collection, and they have a responsibility to their stakeholders,” said Dan O’Connell, president and CEO of the Fort Wayne/Allen County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Declining attendance is a challenge facing many public institutions around the country.

“We’ve seen where history museums are not as popular as they used to be – that includes history centers, our own fort and … the (World War II) Victory Museum,” O’Connell said.

“The way people learn (through) recreation and tourism has changed over the decades,” said Todd Pelfrey, executive director of the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society and The History Center.

“This should, in a big way, bring the community’s attention to the value of appreciating history and supporting history education,” Pelfrey said.

Much of the Lincoln Museum’s extensive collection – a treasure trove for historians that includes 18,000 books and 350 documents signed by Lincoln, among other rarities – will be digitized or sent to other museums around the country, possibly making it more difficult for researchers to access them all.

Meanwhile, the fate of the quarterly magazine Lincoln Lore, which has been locally published since 1929, is not known. The small, scholarly magazine, which started as a one-page newsletter, is the oldest continuously published periodical devoted exclusively to Lincoln and his era. It made the Chicago Tribune’s “50 Favorite Magazines” list three years in a row, beginning in 2005.

Although the museum has a few items with a local connection – including Civil War-era letters from an Allen County soldier – it’s not known whether they will stay here.

Pelfrey hopes that could happen, because the museum and the History Center have collaborated on many programs over the years.

“There are local stories in the Lincoln Museum that we would like to keep in Fort Wayne. We have an open-door acquisitions policy,” Pelfrey said, but he added that the center doesn’t have a collections acquisition budget, so such an item would have to be donated.

The History Center has two upcoming Lincoln-related exhibits. The first, “The Faces of Lincoln,” begins in April. The other begins in December and focuses on Lincoln Secretary of Treasury Hugh McCulloch, who lived in Fort Wayne for a time.

“There will still be a Lincoln presence in Fort Wayne, and we’ll be highlighting the local connections,” Pelfrey said.

But having a temporary presence isn’t quite the same as having a world-renowned city landmark.

“The closing of the museum shouldn’t be a reflection on the quality of the museum. The collection is second to none. The artifacts, the artwork, the way the story is told, are outstanding,” O’Connell said.

sscarlett@jg.net

© Copyright 2012 The Journal Gazette. All rights reserved. Neither this material nor its presentation may be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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