Abe World

NPR carried a story this morning on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum set to open here in Springfield on April 19th. As part of the report, they talked to Dr. John Y. Simon, professor of history at Southern Illinois University. I had the great pleasure of taking a history of Illinois class taught by Dr. Simon while I was an undergrad at SIU in the early 80s.

In the NPR report, Dr. Simon had some less than kind things to say about the way the museum is displaying Lincoln. Not the content per se, but the theme park-like way the content is presented.

I have not been in the museum yet (it’s not open to the public yet) but I have seen pictures and the web site. and I see what Dr. Simon means. But I really like history and don’t need to be enticed by flashy displays to get interested in the topic. Most other people, I suspect, may need a little more incentive to invest their time in historical topics. Anyway, it’s an interesting controversy.

Here is a Chicago Magazine article that gets into the issue a bit and quotes Dr. Simon. And here is an article written by Dr. Simon and published back in 2002 raising the same issues. He’s also quoted here.

On a personal note, I learned a great deal in Dr. Simon’s class. Fortunately, the class was small in size by University standards. Dr. Simon was (and still is, I’m sure) a very interesting. knowledgeable and humorous speaker. He’s also written more than a few books.

His class was great fun. I remember him talking about a visit he had made to Springfield, calling it a “one horse town” where he once had his car stolen. I always thought that strange since in all the time I’ve lived in or near Springfield, I’ve never know anyone who had their car stolen. It happens, I’m sure, but it was odd that it happened to him on a visit.