Lincoln Library And Museum Wins National Award

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has won a national “Leadership in History” award for its exhibit exploring the many ways and reasons that people have made Illinois their home over the centuries. The exhibit, “Here I Have Lived: Home in Illinois,” is now available online so that people anywhere in the world can explore the lives of immigrants, Native Americans, future presidents and social activists.

The award was bestowed by the American Association for State and Local History. The association’s awards, now in their 79th year, are the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.

The presidential library has produced an online version of “Here I Have Lived,” with photos, videos, audio and text descriptions of fascinating people from Illinois. It can be found at http://www.HereIHaveLived.com.

The exhibit features dozens of people, including: Black Hawk, the Sauk leader who refused to be driven away from the land where he grew up.;

Ritta DeFreitas, a Portuguese immigrant who worked for Abraham and Mary Lincoln.;

Michelle Obama, who started out in a Chicago bungalow and made it to the White House.;

Richard Pryor, who grew up in Peoria and used humor to make Americans face difficult truths.;

Oscar Micheaux, a farm boy who broke barriers for Black artists in Hollywood.;

And Louisa Phifer, who ran a farm and raised seven children while her husband served in the Civil War.

ALPLM Executive Director Christina Shutt was the exhibit curator. “We wanted to give visitors a sense of the incredible breadth of Illinois history while also keeping the spotlight on people, not lists of dates and places. What better way to connect the people of today with the people of yesterday than by focusing on the very personal idea of home?” Shutt said.

The exhibit took its name from a phrase Lincoln used when saying farewell to the city of Springfield for the final time: “Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return …”

The mission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is to inspire civic engagement through the diverse lens of Illinois history and sharing with the world the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.