Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation Owes Big $$$

[davg2000]

“Did we keep it from the public? Sure,” [Nick Kalm, Vice-Chairman of the ALPLM Foundation] said. “But this isn’t a public issue.”

The private foundation, Kalm said, had no “duty to disclose.”

This remark is disturbing. I can't imagine a more public person than Abraham Lincoln. He is not like Chester A. Arthur or Benjamin Harrison. Everyone who visits the Museum comes through its doors already "owning" Lincoln and believing that the artifacts they will see are genuine. Why? Because the ALPLM places its reputation on the line to support that belief. There is an ax, for example, which has been displayed as "Lincoln's Last Ax," with an accompanying statement that Lincoln used the ax while visiting Grant in Virginia at the end of the War. OK, but it looks pretty much like any other ax, same length and shape. But I know that Lincoln used it because the ALPLM says he did.

So now what? Is some skeptic about to enter the Museum today thinking, "Well, they didn't tell us about the Hat--what else didn't they tell us about?"

Justice Williams is right to be concerned. Although do I believe the provenance for everything else in the Taper purchase is pristine, my belief exists because I find the ALPLM convincing.