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The museum bills itself as the gateway to other Lincoln sites in the Midwest. The facility is also called a "marriage of scholarship and showmanship" that takes the union of historical legend and modern technology to a new level. With its yellow school bus parked out front, C-Span covered the

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Breathless anticipation. The headline of Springfield's daily newspaper, The State Journal Register, announces the big news (Saturday, April 16th, 2005): Bush would deliver the keynote address at the midday dedication ceremony for the museum on April 19th.

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Richard Norton Smith (left), the director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, met with Hauenstein Center Assistant Director Brian Flanagan two days before the dedication ceremony. Norton Smith, in addition to being an estimable author, has been the director of numerous presidential libraries and museums -- the Hoover,

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BRC Imagination Arts -- the same organization that contributed to the design of DisneyWorld -- helped design the Abraham Lincoln Museum. The result is a new kind of presidential museum that encourages immersive, interactive experiences. One of the museum's outstanding features is lifelike figures set in carefully reconstructed settings. The

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Already as a boy, Lincoln was a daydreamer; his stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston, appreciated and cultivated his contemplative nature. On the Indiana frontier Lincoln received less than one year of formal schooling. But he loved to read. Among the books he read were the Bible, The Life of Dr. Benjamin

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This scene -- a slave auction -- depicts a slave family going through the anguish of being separated. Twice Lincoln traveled down the Mississippi to New Orleans and personally observed the sale of slaves that resulted in families being separated. It is often noted that Abraham Lincoln did not begin

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Lincoln's children at play in his law office in Springfield. William Herndon, Lincoln's law partner, complained that while Lincoln reclined to read newspapers (as he does in this depiction), he allowed his children to do whatever they pleased in the office. Herndon later recalled that Lincoln's children could have "s[hi]t

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In 1858, Republican Abraham Lincoln challenged incumbent Democrat Stephen A. Douglas for one of Illinois' two Senate seats. During the campaign they tangled in seven debates; the one represented in this scene took place at Knox College. In these famous debates Senator Douglas consistently maintained that the states should choose

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Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln experienced much personal grief during their quarter century of marriage. Perhaps most difficult of all, three of their four sons never lived to adulthood. In this scene in the White House, Mary tries to help her dying third son, Willie. What is particularly striking about

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Lincoln had a tough time finding good generals to lead the Army of the United States during the Civil War. Several failed him before he finally settled on Ulysses S. Grant. George McClellan (left) was much acclaimed for building and training the Army of the Potomac. But when he got

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This close-up of Grant shows the stunningly accurate features of the life-size figures located throughout the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.

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Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet debate emancipation in the president's White House office. This was more than a half-century before the West Wing and original Oval Office were added.

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On Good Friday evening, April 14, 1865, the Lincolns went to Ford's Theatre to see "Our American Cousin." Accompanying the Lincolns were an engaged couple, Major Henry Reed Rathbone and Clara Harris. During the third act, the president took his first lady's hand, prompting Mary to ask, "What will Miss

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The president's body was taken from the nation's capital to Springfield by train, making numerous stops during the 13-day journey. On May 3rd and 4th, his remains lay in state in the Hall of Representatives in the Old State Capitol. Even though more than two weeks had elapsed since his

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Lincoln's ghost? This photograph vividly illustrates some of the special effects used at the Lincoln Museum to enhance visitors' experience. Numerous historians were consulted -- the aim was to balance engagement with historical accuracy. The new museum uses 21st-century technology to bring the 19th century to life -- hence the

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David Gergen delivered the keynote address at the conference, "Lincoln in the Twenty-first Century," held at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library on April 17-18, 2005. The conference featured the world's foremost Lincoln scholars. Gergen, who teaches at Harvard University, is the former advisor to four presidents.

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Lincoln scholar David Herbert Donald graciously autographed books, one of which (Lincoln) has become canonical, and many of which are best-sellers. Here he is signing Brian Flanagan's copy of Lincoln.

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David Herbert Donald (right) calls himself "an accidental historian." He stumbled into studying history in graduate school at the University of Illinois because it was the most interesting and opportune thing for him to do at the time. Donald said this about himself and his colleagues: "We are not speculators;

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C-Span President and CEO Brian Lamb moderated the final panel of the conference and, as always, put disarmingly penetrating questions to the panelists.

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"Abraham Lincoln is at once the most familiar and the most elusive of American heroes," observes Harold Holzer. Holzer, a panelist and Hauenstein Center favorite, has spent more time than most thinking about our 16th president: he has written 23 books about Lincoln. Did we forget to mention: that's in

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Gleaves Whitney and David Herbert Donald enjoyed a few moments talking about his masterful biography of Lincoln.

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Lincoln conferences always attract Lincoln character interpreters. Towering over Brian Lamb, this interpreter from Boston is six-feet, 10-inches tall.

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Lincoln's Springfield This aerial view of Lincoln's house at sunset was taken by Brian Flanagan, who hurridly snapped the photo while hanging from the wing strut of a Cesna 172. We lost Brian, but got a great photo for his sacrifice. The photo, taken moments before he lost his grip,

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The Lincoln home after sunset.

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Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices Brian Flanagan in front of the law office of Abraham Lincoln and his junior parter, William "Billy" Herndon.

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Old State Capitol Designed in the Greek Revival style that was all the rage on the 19th-century frontier, the Old State Capitol in Springfield opened its doors in 1839, when Abraham Lincoln was 30 years old. A successful attorney and sometime legislator, he spent much of his career doing research

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The cornerstone of the Greek Revival statehouse was laid on the Fourth of July in 1837, five months after legislators, including a second-term representative named Abraham Lincoln, voted to move the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield. Five years earlier, in 1832, Lincoln made his first run for a House

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This statue of Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas stands on the second floor of the Old State House. Democrat Douglas and Republican Lincoln could not have been more unlike; the former was short and stocky, the latter lanky and gawky. Politically they were often on opposite sides of any given

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This is the Hall of Representatives where, in 1858, Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln gave his famous "House Divided" speech. In the November contest, Lincoln won the popular vote but lost the vote that counted -- in the Illinois legislature -- and Stephen Douglas was returned to the U.S. Senate. This

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Almost everyone knows that Lincoln was a clever trial lawyer, but few realize how prominent he was. No backwoods hayseed, he argued more than 300 cases before the Illinois Supreme Court (pictured at right) on the second floor of the Old State House. In the early 1840s, some of the

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Illinois Capitol This statue of Stephen Douglas, "the Little Giant," stands guard at the entrance of the Illinois Capitol in Springfield. Douglas unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1852 and 1856. Finally, in 1860 he won the nomination of his party -- but lost to Lincoln in the general

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