Monday, March 3, 2008

Lincoln Museum To Close

Verbatim announcement from the Lincoln Financial Foundation, issued Monday morning
Link (The Scoop)

"The Lincoln Foundation is proactively pursuing a solution that benefits historical education and scholarship and exposes the collection to the largest possible audience. Through invitation, the Lincoln Foundation will host a national informational session with potential public partners in late March to provide an understanding of the collection items and, in turn, discuss options for increasing visibility.

The Lincoln Museum has operated in Fort Wayne, Ind., for many years, first as a library and then as a museum. As a result of this new strategic direction, The Lincoln Museum will close to the public effective June 30."
Lincoln Museum closing
Link (NS)
"One or more organizations will take over possession of the museum's thousands of pieces of Lincoln memorabilia, which includes a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln. It is not thought that any of it will remain in Fort Wayne. Some of the print items, such as the Proclamation, will be digitized to stay here."

[...]

"The museum opened in 1928, and has been in its current location since September 1995. The museum was a pet project of Arthur Hall, a top executive of the Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., which was founded in Fort Wayne before moving to Philadelphia."
Lincoln Museum closing
Link (JG)

Lincoln Museum to Close
Link (WANE)

Lincoln Museum Closing Its Doors
Link (INC)

Image from Lincoln Museum website

3 comments:

David C Roach said...

we need to lose another downtown asset like we need a hole in the head. oops. bad metaphor
now the great downtown office space lottery begins:
who owns the building. follow the money
new combined city police/sheriff HQ?
will the city govt move out of the CC building, and into the lincoln building?
will the city police or sheriffs dept relocate into the vacated city offices in the city-county building?
nothing like buying high, selling low. a few months ago- before harrison square, you likely couldnt give office space away downtown, or the soon to be former lincoln building.
now, office space is at a premium.
nothing like trying to lease space when the prices are now inflated. should have made a move on it before Harrison square.
oh well- business as usual in FTW.
follow the money. see who gets rich.
other examples:worthman office mall on s fairfield- former SSN office.
tippman- unemployment/welfare office on rudisill- a booming business around here, these days.
lincoln- their lewis/harrison/calhoun buildings, and this downtown renaissance elephant. first the library rented it out for a few years. who- govt entity will be next?
why not buy it thorugh eminent domain? instead of paying out the wazoo into perpetuity?
oh i forgot- follow the money
not to mention- lets simply auction off all thes artifacts, and treasures, and scatter the entire lincoln collection toe the 4 winds. or move them all to philadelphia; and co hq?
its like a bullet to the head. just a shot in the dark( note- irony?)

Scott Bryson said...

There goes another treasure out of Indiana. I can't say I'm surprised. Lincoln does not care about this city any more. I wish they would close the whole office and get out. Their continued presence here is an insult.

The Scoop says LFG has 235 billion under management. I wonder how much money LFG will receive for a collection as extensive as this. Maybe the Federal Government should eminent domain the collection and give it to the Smithsonian, they at least care about history.

Unknown said...

Scott B., take a deep breath. It sucks that the museum is closing, and that Lincoln's presence in FW and connection to our community continue to shrink. But they still employ something like 1500 people here. Please don't wish those people out of work.