Illinois Governor Jim Edgar used the occasion of Abraham Lincoln's 189th birthday on February 12 to pledge $4.9 million to design a library devoted to the 16th president. The funds will lay the groundwork for the estimated $40-million project, to be financed through state, federal, and private money.
"Abraham Lincoln is the most studied and respected individual in United States history. There are presidential libraries honoring 11 American presidents, and it is time to build a library to honor our nation's greatest president,'' Edgar said.
The Lincoln Presidential Center, to be located in the president's home town of Springfield, would be the first presidential library created in honor of a 19th-century president. Unlike most presidential libraries, which are administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, the Lincoln library would be administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Posted February 16, 1998.