For the Inauguration, 10 Smithsonian Exhibits
Those five shows play into the Lincoln-Obama connections that popped up during the election, and also give the Smithsonian a little jump on the events surrounding next year's bicentennial of Lincoln's birth.
"Part of it is that Lincoln is an enduring personality. Lincoln is in our national DNA, and because of that you can always go back to Lincoln," said Harry R. Rubenstein, the chairman of the division of politics and reform at the National Museum of American History, explaining the exhibit choice."He is always relevant, especially at this point where we are marking historic changes."
Curators at five museums have organized the presidential-themed exhibits tied to the inauguration on Jan. 20.
"Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life," a new show pulled from the collections at the American History Museum, opens Jan. 16. This exhibition features 60 items the Lincolns used, owned or acquired."It is not just the White House china, but the last cup he drank from before he left to go to Ford's Theatre. It's his watch, his hat," Rubenstein said. The iconic top hat Lincoln was wearing the night of his assassination will be moved to this new exhibit. A second Lincoln show opening the same day at the museum will focus on rare documents from the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Ill.