A Collaborative Project of the Newberry Library, the Chicago Museum, and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
About the Project
(excerpted from project website)
Lincoln at 200 is a collaborative project of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, the Chicago History Museum, and the Newberry Library. The Institute for Museum and Library Services has generously provided funding for this Web exhibition as part of a series of initiatives to commemorate the Lincoln bicentennial. All three institutions collaborated in planning public programs in Chicago for the bicentennial year. Eileen Mackevich, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, initiated the discussions that led to this collaboration. We are grateful to her and to Jennifer Rosenfeld, deputy executive director of the Bicentennial Commission, for their energetic and collegial participation in this initiative.
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War is a digital version of a temporary exhibition at Chicago History Museum (October 10, 2009 to April 4, 2010). Abraham Lincoln and the West, 1809–1860 is a Web-only exhibition. The Newberry is one of five sites chosen to host With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition, a traveling exhibit prepared by the Library of Congress (at the Newberry Library from October 10, 2009 to December 19, 2009).
The Chicago History Museum project team would like to thank the following people for their help: Dominique Tremblay, Frank DeCurtis, and Meghan Smith, collections managers; Holly Lundberg, objects conservator, Carol Turchan, paper conservator; Debbie Vaughan, Lesley Martin, and AnneMarie Chase, Research Center; and Rob Medina, Erin Tikovitch, and Bryan McDaniel, Rights and Reproductions Department. The team would also like to thank Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University; Russell Lewis, Executive Vice President and Chief Historian, Chicago History Museum; and Thomas F. Schwartz, Illinois State Historian, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, for their expertise when reviewing the content of the site.
The Newberry Library project team is grateful to our colleagues for the many ways in which they helped to make this project possible. As an activity of the Newberry’s Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture, we are grateful for the support of the Dr. Scholl Foundation. James Grossman, vice president of Research and Education, provided guidance from the early stages. We turned to many staff members for research assistance, including: James R. Akerman, John S. Aubrey, John Brady, Martha Briggs, Diane Dillon, Alison Hinderliter, Robert Karrow, Scott Stevens, and Gail Terry. John Powell and the photo duplication staff deserve special mention, as does the Special Collections staff, General Reading Room staff, and Local and Family History Staff for handling multiple requests with ease. Ann Durkin Keating, professor of history at North Central College, and Eric Foner provided critical review.
The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University created Omeka, the exhibition software that made this project practical on a tight schedule.
Lincoln at 200 is a collaborative project of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, the Chicago History Museum, and the Newberry Library. The Institute for Museum and Library Services has generously provided funding for this Web exhibition as part of a series of initiatives to commemorate the Lincoln bicentennial. All three institutions collaborated in planning public programs in Chicago for the bicentennial year. Eileen Mackevich, executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, initiated the discussions that led to this collaboration. We are grateful to her and to Jennifer Rosenfeld, deputy executive director of the Bicentennial Commission, for their energetic and collegial participation in this initiative.
