Donate to help save Abraham Lincoln's artifacts
Abraham Lincoln's gloves (image courtesy Lincoln Museum)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Abraham Lincoln once said, "Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way."
So it's not improbable that the 16th president would endorse a hip fundraising method to ensure that priceless artifacts belonging to him stay in his hometown.
The crowdsourcing site GoFundMe -- currently featuring requests of $800 to finance a boy's Eagle Scout project, $5,000 to send a terminally ill little boy to Disneyland and $55,000 for a school playground -- was enlisted last week for a new goal: $9.7 million to save from auction thousands of items, including bloody gloves carried the night of his assassination and a stovepipe hat purportedly belonging to Lincoln.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation in Springfield must pay the debt by October 2019 or sell off parts of the well-known Taper Collection acquired in 2007 for $25 million with a $23 million loan.
And it makes no apologies for its non-traditional push. The self-effacing Lincoln would likely raise no objection, foundation CEO Carla Knorowski said.
"He was a fun guy, he was a hip guy," Knorowski said. "In this day and age when we have icons and revere masked avengers, there is no greater superhero than Lincoln, there is no more deserving leader in our nation."
Besides the gloves and hat, the 1,400 items include the quill pen left on Lincoln's desk when he died; his presidential seal, replete with wax left on it from its last use; a book with his earliest known writings; notes between Lincoln and his wife, Mary; and Lincoln White House china.
By Saturday morning, GoFundMe contributions had reached nearly $5,000.
When purchased, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum had only been open two years. The economy was strong and individual and corporate gifts ate away large chunks of the loan, but the economy tanked a year later. Nevertheless, the acquisition was a huge victory for an institution that Knorowski concedes was "long on documents, but we were short on any kind of personal effects."
Alan Lowe, executive director of the presidential library and museum, said his staff is assisting the foundation and endorsed the GoFundMe.
"An online fundraising campaign like this is a great way to give the everyday Lincoln fan a chance to help and to have a personal stake in what happens to our shared heritage," Lowe said.
Gov. Bruce Rauner said his administration has been in talks with the foundation about strategy. He said last week he wasn't pledging tax dollars, but noted the loan isn't due for 18 months.
"That's a long time, so move slowly, certainly let's not have any panicked selling," Rauner said.
Knorowski hopes Lincoln's universal appeal will catch on. Clark Rechtin, a donor from Kentucky, Lincoln's birthplace, messaged the GoFundMe page, "By producing Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky met its duty to the nation for all eternity; we must meet the duty to preserve his memory."
In a phone interview, Rechtin, a semi-retired attorney, said he was moved to contribute because the campaign involves the type of personal belongings that so left an impression on him during childhood visits to museums: "Things like that -- the indicia of history -- it's stunning," he said.
The foundation has decided to part with some items in the collection, those belonging to Marilyn Monroe. Nine items, including 1950s photos of the movie starlet by photographer Arnold Newman, and a wool dress that could fetch $60,000, will be auctioned June 23 in Las Vegas. Monroe had an affinity for Lincoln and had read Carl Sandburg's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography.
The decision to sell items not directly related to Lincoln is an attempt to show its sincerity in meeting the goal and to "do everything to be fiscally responsible," Knorowski said.
Tax-deductible donations may be made through the foundation's website as well -- the foundation doesn't have to pay an administrative fee on those transactions like it does on GoFundMe contributions, Knorowski said.
"People say, `I don't want to give to debt,' but these items will go away into the private realm and no one's going to see them again," Knorowski said. "You give to the history of this nation, you give to Abraham Lincoln."