Lincoln Museum closing in June

=^-..-^= · Post by **=^-..-^=** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:02 am

This is too bad. The museum was first rate and very informative. I will miss it.

Along with the museum displays goes a big Lincoln research library with many original documents.

The article in the paper says this reflects a nationwide trend of decreased museum attendance. Today's mueums are a far cry from the museums of the past, with more intereactive exhibits and hands-on activities. At each stage of an exhibit, there is an artifact, and a short paragraph of information, and lots of pictures / drawings.

So the question is: Is there an increasing lack of interest in history, or is the interest still there, but history is being presented today in different / better ways than museums, or a little of both?

I was watching History Channel the other day, and in between their crappy conjecture shows about UFO's & Bigfoot, there was a show called History Rocks the 70's, hosted by Meatloaf. They played about 5 songs from the 70's, and each segment/song had information about a different event in the 70's (Skylab falling, 3 mile island, Iran hostage crisis, Pong.) While the show held my interest, afterward, it felt like I had been stuffing myself with potato chips for the past hour and regretted it.

And we still can't trust Hollywood to get our History right.

WBOB · Post by **WBOB** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:10 am

Very sad,...a FW icon like that leaving,...AAA always rated them highly.

Too bad they can't link together with the downtown library or something
to that effect.

Silencio · Post by **Silencio** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:15 am

America has never cared about history, save for a handful of Civil War buffs or the Lincoln freaks who have written 2,500 biographies of him. We care only for novelty, for what's next, for tomorrow, when the sun'll com up and it's only a day away.

Also, you sneer at Hollywood as if we could trust someone to get it right. I'd like to know who that is... except for the most serious academics, nobody gets our history right. I think that's because history is a litany of evil deeds, and we like to imagine that it's really a list of happy accomplishments. We like to imagine that Thomas Edison was a boy genius who "invented" everything: we don't want to know he was a rapacious opportunist and a rat bastard who stole half his legend and spent piles of his fortune crushing people who said otherwise.

Just think of it: in 150 years, we'll be teaching school children that kindly, bland, benign little code monkey William Gates scribbled out DOS in his dorm room, invented the personal computer to make everyone's lives better, and then spent all his money trying to solve the riddle of AIDS. Gee, what a nice guy.

As for museum attendance... how do you get that guy with the iPhone to give a flip about a jaw harp that once belonged to Honest Abe? No historical museum makes money: they're all supported by charitable foundations. If you really want to know, then ask Lincoln Financial why they're closing it and scattering the collection.

=^-..-^= · Post by **=^-..-^=** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:23 am

Well, exactly. Who is gonna' get history right if nobody tells it, nobody gets it right, and nobody is interested in listening? Oh, and there are a few happy stories in there between all that litany of evil

Do we just throw up our hands, let it go, and repeat the same mistakes?

Krieves · Post by **Krieves** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:00 pm

History would be a lot more interesting if it didn't always dwell in the past.

deek · Post by **deek** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:10 pm

Yeah, I heard about this in an internal memo a few days ago...pretty sad, really. And as an employee, I can go there, with a guest, for free...anytime I want. I think I had been there once. What they told us was that they wanted to take it to higher traffic museums, so more people could view it...it makes sense. We have the largest collection of Lincoln stuff...but there isn't much traffic.

Personally, I think there is a lack of interest in history today. Even remembering back to my schooling, most history was a series of dates needed for memorization to pass a test. We very rarely talked in-depth about much of it. I do think its important to be learned, but I have to agree, a lot of it is sugar-coated, because no one wants to teach the truth.

I think there is a perception that there is too much risk by just teaching the truth. Parents will get up in arms, teachers are gonna lose jobs, etc...

But I don't think that ignorance automatically means that history will repeat itself. All this information is available to anyone using an internet-connected device. I'd venture to say that I could get a lot more out of viewing a picture of Lincoln's jaw harp and reading up on it online, than I would travelling to a museum to see and read the same thing...

Silencio · Post by **Silencio** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:36 pm

deek wrote: I think there is a perception that there is too much risk by just teaching the truth. Parents will get up in arms, teachers are gonna lose jobs, etc...

But I don't think that ignorance automatically means that history will repeat itself. All this information is available to anyone using an internet-connected device. I'd venture to say that I could get a lot more out of viewing a picture of Lincoln's jaw harp and reading up on it online, than I would travelling to a museum to see and read the same thing...

Well, you're exactly right. If we taught the truth - human physiology instead of "health," history instead of "government," and most important, basic logic skills - the status quo would be at constant risk. Let me correct that: the status quo would crumble.

But more to the point, just as I said in my iPhone comment... what good is a museum to a guy with the whole Internet in his pocket? What good is a symphony orchestra to a girl editing her own music in a laptop DAW on the bus? Who needs any of the old trappings of class standing when technology is turning the world on its head?

We live in interesting times.

Sankofa · Post by **Sankofa** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:42 pm

I'm sad to see it go, but-fittingly enough-never visited.

bassjones · Post by **bassjones** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:56 pm

Sankofa wrote:I'm sad to see it go, but-fittingly enough-never visited.

plus one all around, and I'm a huge history nut and a big Lincoln fan.

=^-..-^= · Post by **=^-..-^=** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:37 pm

As a History teecher, I kind of resent any implication that I am merely indoctrinating, rather than teeching critical-thinking about historic events. The text we use is pretty balanced at telling the good and bad parts of US History. ( I used to be able to use Howard Zinn and Ken Clark's 'Don't Know Much About History' at my old skool, but I digress.)

As far as the 'Lincoln's mouth harp' idea, I would agree; but there is a BIG difference in jsut looking at pictures of B-29 bombers and going to Wright Patt in Dayton and walking around and actually TOUCHING 'Bock's Car' -the B-29 that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. What's even better is when those WW2-era aircraft stop on tour at Baer Field and you hear those four radial engines power up. . . .

echosauce1 · Post by **echosauce1** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:55 am

=^-..-^= wrote:Well, exactly. Who is gonna' get history right if nobody tells it, nobody gets it right, and nobody is interested in listening? Oh, and there are a few happy stories in there between all that litany of evil Do we just throw up our hands, let it go, and repeat the same mistakes?

Don't give up. Just find something else to take over. History is always written by the winner so make somebody else the loser and rewrite it how you see fit. Then be patient and in thirty years hollywood can add some explosions and sex and the kids will be crawling all over it.

(I don't know if the tic meter exists anymore but you can insert it here.)

=^-..-^= · Post by **=^-..-^=** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:48 am

Asked the same question to my stewduhnts. Mot of them said it was the second one; that people can get their history from other sources.