About the museum
A history with
Abraham Lincoln.
A museum dedicated to a man of character in the only town named for him before his presidency.
The Lincoln Heritage Museum, located in Lincoln, Illinois, is a non-profit entity which interprets for the public the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the world in which he lived. The Museum has served as a dynamic part of the community of Lincoln and Logan County from its origin in 1941, when Lincoln University (Lincoln College) graduate Lawrence Stringer willed his personal collection of Abraham Lincoln themed portraits, busts, and books to the College to create a museum.
Since then, through the generosity of benefactors, the Lincoln Heritage Museum has become one of the country’s most respected Lincoln-related museums. In aggregate, the Lincoln Heritage Museum houses and displays over 15,000 pieces of Civil War artifacts, furnishings, weaponry, photographs, documents, and other ephemera which rival any existing collection of such in the world. Rarities of the collection include a table from New Salem at which Lincoln studied, one of Lincoln’s favorite rocking chairs, a lock of Lincoln’s hair, several of Lincoln’s own books, and a locally-made 1860 Lincoln presidential campaign banner. Several pieces belonging to Lincoln’s family can be found including Mary Lincoln’s jewelry and Tad Lincoln’s rocker.
In 2014 the Lincoln Heritage Museum moved into its more expansive current facility in the Lincoln Center.
Eighty years of growth
From one room to two floors.
1941
The Lincoln Room
The museum began as the Lincoln Room, with a large donation of Abraham Lincoln artifacts from Lincoln University alumnus Judge Lawrence Stringer. Pictured in the 1950s.
2010
Lincoln College Museum
As the collection grew — notably through Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, the last descendant of the Lincoln family — the Lincoln Room became the Lincoln College Museum within the McKinstry Library.
2014
Lincoln Heritage Museum
Having outgrown its space again, the museum moved into the newly constructed Lincoln Center — two floors, a gallery of originals downstairs and the Immersion Tour upstairs.
Today
Still open, still teaching.
The museum is divided into two sections. The first floor displays over a hundred rare and historic objects — furniture owned by Abraham Lincoln, the table he studied on at New Salem, hand-painted campaign banners from 1860, his law books, and much more. The second floor holds the Immersion Tour, which transports visitors to Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865, then travels alongside Mr. Lincoln through a dozen nineteenth-century room recreations.
Mission
To interpret the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the world in which he lived, and to be an educational resource to the community.
Lincoln Heritage Museum invites all to learn from Lincoln, and live like Lincoln.