I recently visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, IL. I’m from Springfield, so this was not my first visit. However, it was my first visit since working as an interpretive planner, so this time I paid extra attention to see if I could tell what the central theme—the big idea that unifies the exhibits—might be.

The museum has several huge exhibit galleries and two very impressive theater presentations—definitely worth checking out if you are ever in the area. After spending a couple of hours seeing everything, I decided the central theme I was walking away with was something along the lines of: Lincoln was a complex leader who faced many obstacles and hardships in his life. There were moments in the exhibits when he was held up as a great man, but he was also consistently portrayed as deeply troubled by personal losses, divisions in the nation, and the tragedies of war.

Then, on the way out, I passed a large display of birthday cards sent to the museum by school children to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. I spent some time reading the different birthday messages and definitely noticed a trend. If there was a theme for this display it would be very different from the one I left with, something like: Abraham Lincoln was our nation’s best president because he freed the slaves. Below are a couple of examples.


Dear President Lincoln, you are the best president. I know you were the 16th president. I have been to the Lincoln museum 15 times. I like you for freeing the slaves. Happy 200th birthday.


You were an excellent president because you freed slaves! Because of you the world is the way it is!


Dear old President Lincoln. Thank you for serving our country as our 16th pres. and freeing the slaves.