Across the street from the famed Ford's Theatre, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, is the new Ford's Theatre Center for Education and Leadership.
The new theater center takes visitors back in time to April 16, 1855 - the day after Lincoln's death. The center displays walls covered with newspaper headlines announcing the president's death and a 34-foot-high book tower that represents roughly 15,000 works written about Lincoln.
Presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, who helped design the center, said the center's mission is to examine how Lincoln has influenced Americans great and small since his death.
Smith said many past U.S. presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, all admired Lincoln.
"Presidents in wartime, embattled presidents, unpopular presidents, they all look to Lincoln. He's their patron saint, because no president was more embattled or more unpopular than Lincoln was during his presidency," he said.
Smith and many others strongly believe Lincoln's influence will continue to live on.
"We deliberately wanted an unfinished quality about this museum, about the story that we're telling here, because the one thing we know is the last word about Lincoln will never be written, and the next generation and the generation after that will discover and interpret Lincoln for themselves, just as we have," he said.
Quotes
"You can take away from Lincoln almost anything that you want," - Richard Norton Smith, historian.
"The story didn't end on April 15. In some ways, the story begins, the story of what we want Lincoln to be, which Lincoln are we talking about, the evolution of the posthumous Lincoln," - Richard Norton Smith, historian.
Warm Up Questions
1. Who was Abraham Lincoln?
2. What do you know about him?
3. Are you planning to go see the new movie about Abraham Lincoln?
Discussion Questions
1. Why is President Lincoln an important president?
2. Why are historians so interested in Abraham Lincoln? What about his story is interesting to you?
Additional Resources
