National Lincoln Exhibit Comes to Princeville in April 2014

The Princeville Heritage Museum in conjunction with the Lillie M. Evans Library will be hosting the exhibit, Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War from April 7, 2014 through May 9, 2014.  Organized thematically, the exhibition explores how Lincoln used the Constitution to confront three intertwined crises of the war—the secession of Southern states, slavery, and wartime civil liberties. Visitors will leave the exhibition with a more complete understanding of Abraham Lincoln as president and the Civil War as the nation’s gravest constitutional crisis.

Lincoln: the Constitution and the Civil War is a traveling exhibition for libraries and was organized by the National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The traveling exhibition has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Lincoln: the Constitution and the Civil War is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.  A short video walkthrough (10:25 min.) with Dr. Steve Frank, Chief Interpretive Officer at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, is available online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hNVUPM5SOg (Preview)

Regular hours at the Princeville Heritage Museum during this exhibit will be Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays 10am-2pm; Tuesdays from 2pm-8pm; and Thursdays from 2pm-6pm.  The exhibit is closed on Sundays.  The Museum is located 325 N Ostrom Avenue in Princeville, IL—15 minutes north of Peoria. The 30,000 sq ft handicap-accessible facility features agriculture antiques, area artifacts, genealogy research, and more. The Akron Townhouse School, a one-room school, is located on the Museum grounds.  For more information and for booking class visits, please call the Museum (309) 385-1916. 

In addition to the regular exhibit hours, there will be programs at the Museum on Tuesdays starting April 8th and continuing through April 29th.  The first in this series is Illinois in the Civil War and it will be presented by Tom Emery on April 8th 6:30pm. On April 15th 6:30pm Brian Fox Ellis will present Black Jack Logan: Civil War General, Senator, King-Maker. On April 22nd 1pm, historical impersonator, Debra Ann Miller, takes us back to Mrs. Lincoln’s “blue room salon” in April 1865.  A special tea with Mrs. Lincoln is included—please call the Museum @ 385-1916 for reservations! The last program will be on April 29th 6:30pm.  Jeanne Schultz Angel will present the Anti-Slavery Movement in Black & White and explore the history behind the anti-slavery movement in Northern Illinois. Two of the programs, Black Jack Logan and the Anti-Slavery Movement in Black & White were provided through a grant from the IHC Road Scholars Speakers Bureau.  Visit the LME Library website at lmelibrary.org for more information on these programs.