Today is the first day of spring. After a long, cold, and windy winter here in Philadelphia, I feel really justified in repeating that… today is the first day of spring!
While the prospect of spring is very exciting to those of us here at the Civil War Museum, our thoughts have actually been turned to summer for some time. This summer a new and very unique event will take place on Independence Mall over the July 4th weekend. It is called Lincoln 200, and it is Philadelphia’s official celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
The celebration will take the form of a festival, and there will be exhibits in tents, performing arts, living history presentations, music, video screenings, and food among many other things. The theme of the celebration is “Lincoln Then and Now,” and it will provide visitors with a fun, educational, and entertaining look at the 16th President, his importance in history, and his legacy today. It will also examine the world Lincoln lived in and how it relates to us today.
About a month ago, I was named Curator for the exhibit portion of the celebration, and have been scouring the city’s incredible abundance of museums, historical societies, and other collecting institutions looking for materials. The sites I have visited and the fantastic collections I have seen are one of the great treats of doing this job, and I wish everyone could get the behind the scenes experience that I have.
I would love to give everyone a preview of what Lincoln 200 will be offering, but I don’t want to give anything away just yet. We are still in the process of finalizing much of what is going into the exhibits, and there is still a great deal of work to be done. Here in the next few weeks, I hope to be able to provide more details on what we hope will be an exciting and unique event.
But I would like to say that the work that I have so far done for the Lincoln 200 event has only served to remind me once again of all the things that make the city of Philadelphia such a wonderful place. There are so many amazing things to see and discover. Showcasing the rich heritage of this city is something that Lincoln 200 is designed to do. In addition, it has always been a personal goal of mine to do whatever I could to return Philadelphia to its rightful place as the nation’s cultural and philosophical center. I hope that the Lincoln 200 festival will be the first step in accomplishing this goal.
While the prospect of spring is very exciting to those of us here at the Civil War Museum, our thoughts have actually been turned to summer for some time. This summer a new and very unique event will take place on Independence Mall over the July 4th weekend. It is called Lincoln 200, and it is Philadelphia’s official celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
The celebration will take the form of a festival, and there will be exhibits in tents, performing arts, living history presentations, music, video screenings, and food among many other things. The theme of the celebration is “Lincoln Then and Now,” and it will provide visitors with a fun, educational, and entertaining look at the 16th President, his importance in history, and his legacy today. It will also examine the world Lincoln lived in and how it relates to us today.
About a month ago, I was named Curator for the exhibit portion of the celebration, and have been scouring the city’s incredible abundance of museums, historical societies, and other collecting institutions looking for materials. The sites I have visited and the fantastic collections I have seen are one of the great treats of doing this job, and I wish everyone could get the behind the scenes experience that I have.
I would love to give everyone a preview of what Lincoln 200 will be offering, but I don’t want to give anything away just yet. We are still in the process of finalizing much of what is going into the exhibits, and there is still a great deal of work to be done. Here in the next few weeks, I hope to be able to provide more details on what we hope will be an exciting and unique event.
But I would like to say that the work that I have so far done for the Lincoln 200 event has only served to remind me once again of all the things that make the city of Philadelphia such a wonderful place. There are so many amazing things to see and discover. Showcasing the rich heritage of this city is something that Lincoln 200 is designed to do. In addition, it has always been a personal goal of mine to do whatever I could to return Philadelphia to its rightful place as the nation’s cultural and philosophical center. I hope that the Lincoln 200 festival will be the first step in accomplishing this goal.
Stay tuned!
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