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| New Education Center Honors Abraham Lincoln |
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It's estimated
750,000 people visit Ford's Theater each year
to see the box
where President Lincoln was shot.
Now they can go across the street to the house where he died
and then to the center next to it.
A 10 meter-high tower of 7,000 books on Abraham Lincoln
shows his enduring appeal.
Curator Tracey Avant says there are more books about Lincoln
than any other American.
"He's just continued to be fascinating,
and people throughout every generation seem to want to redefine
who Abraham Lincoln is to them."
The center has some artifacts,
like a handle from the president's casket
and tassels used to decorate it.
Other exhibits are re-creations of the train
that carried his coffin
and a barn
where John Wilkes Booth, the president's assassin, was shot and killed.
There are also interactive exhibits,
which impressed Charlie Doer.
"I think it's pretty cool,
pretty high tech for Abraham Lincoln."
Tracey Avant says one reason the center was opened
was to answer visitors' questions about the president.
"And he's still very relevant to us today,
so we want people to walk away
having a better understanding
of what it was about Abraham Lincoln that makes him relevant today
and has made him such a popular president."
The Civil War began
after 11 southern states, known as the Confederacy, split from the
north
over the rights of states, including slavery.
In 1863, Lincoln announced
that slavery would end.
Two years later, the south surrendered
and the United States was preserved.
Avant says even though President Lincoln was controversial,
he was admired.
"It has a lot to do with his leadership style and his personality,
the things that he championed.
The fact that he had an ability to relate to the common person
because he had come from, you know, humble roots himself."
The center also shows American presidents and world leaders
who have quoted President Lincoln
on topics like courage, equality and tolerance.
"His writing encompassed really big ideas,
championed important issues,
but he wrote in a very eloquent but very simple style
which was not really the tradition at the time."
Wendy Taylor found the center remarkable.
"I love the way that it encourages people
to think about some of the values
that Lincoln stood for,
to make the world they live in a better place."
To make that point,
the center has created a video of average Americans today
quoting the principles
President Lincoln stood for.
Deborah Block, VOA News, Washington
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