Abraham Lincoln Tomb Documentary

[Angela]

(07-31-2014 09:30 PM)Chris Ryder Wrote:  LincolnToddFan,

I am still learning a great deal and don't know your answer about Mrs. Lincoln, but will ask the LMA. I did read an article about a previous tombkeeper who was crawling above the catacomb of sorts where Mrs. Lincoln is buried and discovered the original grave marker stones. I don't know if this was prior to the final entombment or not.

Your point about taking a bomb to break the concrete (and possible steel cage) is something which I've now added to my potential 'avenues'. Is there a debate on whether or not in this day and age of electronic security if there is a desire to free him, as you say. I could understand an argument where people would want the body to actually reside in the sarcophagus on display, and others maintaining the wishes of the family, son Robert in particular, should always prevail. There seemed to be a lot of people with the morbid curiosity to come up with excuses to view the body. Understandably there are even more people today who would want that opportunity and develop the perfect excuse to do so? The opportunity to be the new, last person to view his body. If Jesus is the most written about person in the world and President Lincoln is second, wouldn't that also be the order of who people would also like to see with their own eyes more than any other person?

Back to Mrs. Lincoln, another avenue I want to concentrate on is the monument as a tomb for a family and to try to give Mrs. Lincoln a fair deal. Maybe I am naive, but I think she gets a bad rap historically. Similar to Jackie Kennedy, the trajedy she experienced is unfathomable. Then for history to beat her up, ask Congress for a widows pension, fight the opportunists who wanted to turn LA into a tourist attraction...she had to endure things most of us will never experience on our worse day.

I fight with the thought I am being a bit hypocritical as well by potentially earning some income from his death by creating this documentary...and that reminds me of something I forgot to bring up before. If I am able to produce the re-enactment scenes, there will be no actor portraying the president. All camera angles used will never actually show the body. That's my line of respect.

I also find it endearing throughout the LMA budget cuts, they have not resorted to tackiness. They sell a few items on their website and offer memberships. There is no visitors center with a gift shop. That surely disappoints some people, but the intention was this monument and tomb to be a mecca, not a tourist attraction.

Chris,
Thank you so much for the details. From the original description I thought this would be good – after reading about your most respectful approach on the matter, I can hardly wait to see this documentary.

I imagine it must be difficult to avoid the avenue of sensationalism which would probably help to sell the story and your shying away from it has my highest respect.

As you, I cannot imagine the idea to break up the tomb once more and drag those remains into the open. I understand the wish of people for “closeness” to such a revered figure, but isn’t it time to let him rest?
At the same time, I agree with Toia that it was a most tragic decision to come up with such destructive way of entombing the remains with little chance to retrieve them in case that should ever be necessary. I'm curious if - back in the day - any other options were considered by the family.

In a way, it is quite interesting how we all want a piece of Abraham Lincoln.
I once read somewhere that sometimes it is hard to realize that we already have it – have had it for 150 years, we just have not figured out what to do with it.
I liked that thought and maybe that is why we want more.