Jeff Buczkiewicz stood before the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated 150 years ago. He peered silently into the glass-enclosed case at the rocking chair, then snapped pictures for posterity.

"You just get drawn into these things," said Buczkiewicz, 47, who came from suburban Chicago with his family to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. "It is a tragic part of our history and our country. I think it's important to take it all in."

Taking in objects from the final hours of two important American lives is a major draw to the museum. In addition to the worn, red chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot in Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1865, the Henry Ford also owns the limousine President John F. Kennedy was riding in when he was fatally shot in Dallas nearly a century later. Museum officials say the chair and car are among the most visited artifacts in the museum, along with the bus Rosa Parks rode in when she refused to give up her seat to a white rider and help