April 15, 2009 Library of Congress Extends Lincoln Exhibit Closing Date, Public Hours; Last Chance in Decades To See Unprecedented Assemblage of Objects

Press Contact: Audrey Fischer (202) 707-0022

Because of overwhelming demand, the Library of Congress is extending both the closing date and public hours of “With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition.”

The exhibit will remain open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. (Normal visitor hours, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., will prevail Monday though Thursday.)

In addition, the Library is taking the rare step of opening to the public on a Sunday. The exhibit will be open on Sunday, May 10, its closing day, from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. (The original closing date was May 9.)

The exhibit marks the greatest assemblage of objects from the Library’s Lincoln collections in history, with original drafts of documents in Lincoln’s hand such as his first and second inaugural addresses, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address. For the first time ever, the exhibit unites an exchange of letters between Lincoln and Grace Bedell in which the young girl urges the Illinois politician to grow a beard. These letters are on loan to the exhibition from the Benjamin Shapell Family Manuscript Foundation and the Detroit Public Library.

Attendance at the exhibit is expected to double the highest previous attendance of any other three-month exhibit in the Library’s history.

After the exhibition closes in Washington, it will travel to The California Museum in Sacramento, Calif. (spring/summer 2009); the Newberry Library in Chicago (fall 2009); the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis (winter/spring 2010); the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta (fall 2010); and The Durham Museum in Omaha, Neb. (winter 2011).

“With Malice Toward None” and its national tour are made possible through the generous support of Union Pacific Corporation.

For details about the exhibition, go to www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-199.html.

The online version of the exhibition can be found at www.loc.gov/lincoln/. Images for use by the media can be found at www.loc.gov/pressroom/.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a new, personalized website at myLOC.gov.

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PR 09-080
2009-04-16
ISSN 0731-3527