It’s been plagued with issues for years, however the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum shouldn’t be hanging up its hat.
Days after Gov. J.B. Pritzker introduced U.S. Transportation Secretary and former Republican congressman Ray LaHood can be overseeing the board of the Springfield library and museum, the governor on Monday introduced the addition of six new board members.
Former Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2017 signed an government order making the library and museum a separate state company. The order meant that the museum would not fall underneath the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. And whereas there have been statutes in place concerning the museum’s board, no members had been appointed throughout Rauner’s time period.
Pritzker’s workplace mentioned by statute the board should characteristic 4 public members, and one knowledgeable every in enterprise; Lincoln’s historical past; Illinois historical past; library and museum research; historic preservation; cultural tourism; conservation, digitization and technological innovation.
Appointees embody J. Steven Beckett, a Lincoln historian and lawyer described as a “frequent lecturer on [Lincoln’s] law practices;” Jessica Harris, an administrator at Southern Illinois University; Jason Lesniewicz, the Director of Cultural Tourism at Choose Chicago; Dan Monroe, a professor at Millikin University; Melinda Spitzker-Johnston, a digital supervisor at Encyclopedia Britannica; and Martin Sandoval, an lawyer and founding accomplice of Compass Associates.
The Lincoln library has been affected by money owed, so the muse that runs the library and museum had weighed auctioning off Lincoln artifacts to repay the $9.7 million it owes on a 2007 mortgage it used to purchase the Barry and Louise Taper Collection.
That assortment, valued at $25 million, features a stovepipe, beaver-fur hat Lincoln allegedly wore, priced at $6.5 million. It additionally included the blood-stained gloves the 16th president wore the night time he was assassinated.
The authenticity of the hat and its connection to Lincoln fell into heavy scrutiny after the acquisition.
The Chicago Sun-Times first raised questions in regards to the hat’s background in 2012. The state historic panel that oversaw the museum even debated having the Illinois State Police’s forensic lab conduct DNA testing on the hat in an effort to find out if it ever sat on Lincoln’s head.
But the museum curator objected, snapping “This is a dead issue. Dandruff, bone, hair, forget it. It’s not there.”
Emails launched final week revealed that the state’s prime historian might discover no proof linking the hat to Lincoln.
“It appears from my discussions with the state historian that he and his team have found no evidence confirming the hat belonged to President Lincoln,” Alan Lowe, government director of the library and museum instructed a prime Pritzer aide within the June 5 e-mail.
“This does not mean that evidence does not exist, but the efforts of our team have been very thorough. We all had hoped that something definitive would be found, but thus far that is not the case,” wrote Lowe, who was later fired.
The museum has been dogged by criticism since its founding. Then Gov. George Ryan got here underneath fireplace in 2001 for attempting to engineer the appointment of his chief of workers as director of the $115 million museum.
Pritzker named 4 different board members final week. The governor additionally ousted Lowe, who began on the library in Springfield at 2016. Lowe changed Eileen Mackevich who resigned in 2015 over differing views with Rauner on the course of the museum.