# If You Come to Springfield, Illinois to See the Lincoln Sites

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-come-to-springfield-illinois-to-see-the-lincoln-sites/373846>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 23, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-come-to-springfield-illinois-to-see-the-lincoln-sites/373846 "2006-09-23T14:29:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-come-to-springfield-illinois-to-see-the-lincoln-sites/373846/21 "2018-12-22T17:52:23Z")

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Updating this thread perhaps you should go soon–before the Lincoln Library sells off its crown jewels:

> [@](#):
>
> The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, may be forced to sell part of its rich collection, due to debt on a loan taken for a major purchase more than a decade ago.
> 
> In 2007, the museum’s fundraising foundation borrowed $23m to buy 1,500 documents and artefacts from a private collector. It now owes $9.2m on a note due in October 2019 but donations have slowed and attempts to secure a state government grant have met determined resistance.
> 
> In a statement, the foundation said a sale may be necessary.

> **[Abraham Lincoln library and museum may sell artefacts to pay loan debt](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/22/abraham-lincoln-library-museum-sell-artefacts-debt)**
>
> Museum owes $9.2m due in October 2019 but scholar Harold Holzer says sale would ‘exponentially cripple the institution’

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**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\
**Post date:** [December 22, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-come-to-springfield-illinois-to-see-the-lincoln-sites/373846/22 "2018-12-22T19:16:33Z")

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> [@PastTense](#):
>
> Updating this thread perhaps you should go soon–before the Lincoln Library sells off its crown jewels

There has[been some reporting](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/us/abraham-lincoln-museum-hat-controversy.amp.html?espv=1) the crown jewel among the crown jewels, a Lincoln stovepipe hat, is fake or, at best, not able to be conclusively linked to him.

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