Adventure Recap: Lincoln Exhibition

  I'm gonna level. Last week, I was in a major funk. My class load this semester has been unexpectedly stressful which confined me to far too many hours staring at a computer screen watching political documentaries and scrambling the odd paper together. In all honesty, it just hasn't been great for my mental sanity. My mom is in a similar (but admittedly worse) situation, dealing with work and moving my Grandma into a care home has kind of made her crazy. We both needed an adventure. 

  So, as we'd planned to for a good month, we finally packed up the car and made the trip out to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for their Lincoln exhibit. We became members back when they had their AMAZING Disney family archives exhibition simply because they had a few other events coming up that we knew we'd want to see and didn't feel like paying every time for. The library is close enough anyway. I'm especially glad we went seeing as the next week there was a little thing called a government shut down that actually forced most of the Reagan Library to close. 

  We arrived around 2:00 and had no problem parking super close. Immediately, we were greeted with a riddle. 

Awa?

  What are you, AWA? Where are you? We followed those signs because I believe in doing that sort of thing. Alas, we never found AWA or learned what it was and I entered the library crestfallen.

  We entered the first room of the Lincoln exhibit, bypassing the main permanent exhibits the library has to offer because there really are only so many times I can look at Nancy Reagan's wardrobe behind plate glass. This beginning section covered the usual origin story of Abe, his beginnings on his parents farm, his adventures in law, etc. etc. It also featured some pretty dang incredible relics like an early campaign banner and LINCOLN'S HAT (pictured upper right). Yes. That is his hat. He wore that hat. It's one of three still in existence in fact. It really just doesn't get more iconic than that. HISTORY!

Sally Field is only slightly taller than a vanity. Let that sink in.

   Next up, we had a special section provided by Dreamworks of a few sets and costumes from the film appropriately named, "Lincoln". Maybe you've heard of it. Not gonna lie, this was not my favorite movie, but I appreciated it for the accomplishment it was and enjoyed what it had to offer. I'm only slightly embarrassed to say that this part of the exhibit was probably my favorite. I felt pretty weird that amongst all the real life finery from the Civil War era, what really grabbed me was a reproduction created a few years ago worn by Daniel Day Lewis. Still, it was pretty fascinating to see up close just how much detail they pumped into a prop that may get 1.3 seconds of screen time.

I'm secretly pushing for a Lincoln-themed Slenderman now.

  Seriously, the detail that went into the set pictured above is insane. We weren't provided with an original image of the office so I have no idea how accurate it was, but it really doesn't matter. It was extremely intricate and I appreciate the hell out of that. It was also super neat to have what appeared to be a FULL set shown to us rather than some watered down display of the furniture they could acquire. Every prop down to the jumbled papers made it feel like a very lived in space which was just plain neat. 

  After the sets, we returned to the official historical artifacts. Most of these were war related including a display of a triage tent (not pictured) that honestly made me woozy. Those bone saws were not friendly looking. 

Copy of the Emancipation Proclamation actually signed by Lincoln.

  We moved on to what I can only call the "Assassination Room"? Probably my second favorite room, honestly, which sounds macabre but I am so there. I loved the way this section was angled because a good chunk of the artifacts were regarding John Wilkes Booth, something you don't really get to read about in history class. They had several advertisements of his performances, pictures in costume, and his autographed copy of Julius Caesar to name a few. I loved how this actually humanized Booth in a way. It's really easy to forget that figures in history who do bad things are still people with pasts and interests. It was uncomfortable but really added a new perspective.

  We dodged a tour group with probably the worst tour guide ever (seriously, you don't know that Lincoln was shot during a performance of "Our American Cousin"? First of all, it's right there on that sign behind you.) to get a view of a mock-up of the room Abe died in. This is kinda where I got a little weirded out by everything (it got weirder). Maybe death makes me uncomfortable but I felt like it was an attempt to end the exhibit with too much of a bang (dammit, sorry) for something so somber as the death of a pretty well-loved president. It was too, "Ooh! Look everybody! Deathbed!".  I dunno. Kinda silly of me, but for some reason I felt uneasy.

  Also, who the hell thinks to keep this stuff?  I totally understand that it's amazing someone did so I can be lucky enough to see something touched by history, but who thought that some this stuff would ever be this important? They had Mary-Todd's commode in another room for cryin' out loud. This maybe was another reason the death room creeped on me. They had the actual pillow that Lincoln died on, complete with faded blood stains, and I just could not for the life of me understand why you would need to keep that. I dunno, I'm weird.

"Bloody pillow. Yeah, hang on to that." - Said a Weirdo

  Then the exhibit came to a stranger conclusion.

  Uh? Sure. Giant Lincoln bust made of wax. Complete with ear hair. For realsies. Guys, I dunno, maybe I was getting hungry so I was fussy at this point but I didn't get this. It was so...prominent. Big ol' spotlight on the Lincoln head. Which, by the way, was SO MUCH BIGGER than it needed to be. MEGA LINCOLN. It was odd. Yes it was amazingly intricate, but it was unexpected and just didn't seem to fit. And then it got stranger? In the corner, literally presented as the last display, was a dress owned by Marilyn Monroe. I didn't get a picture of it probably because I was in a stupor of confusion at that point. Just, why? Why? The museum had tried to justify it because in school Marilyn had once written a paper about how she believed her father was Abraham Lincoln. Okay. Yeah. Kids do cute things, guys. I once said my goal in life was to be a horse, but you don't see my possessions in a horse museum. It was just plain weird and probably the biggest let down ending to a museum exhibition of all time. I mean, dammit, the Exhibit is the Life and Times of Abraham Lincoln. He did cool things, everybody! Why would you end his tribute with a silly anecdote about a 50s sex icon? For the record, I love Marilyn and 50s sex icons, but it was the wrong place and the wrong time. Completely.

  But things got better eventually because mom and I went to Vons and they had the CUTEST stuffed dino and a lambchop! Yes! Good!

  Overall, I thought the trip was very interesting. I learned some cool stuff and saw some things that only a chunk of the human race can say they've seen in-person. Most importantly, my mom and I had a fun little break from all the crazy.

  Thank you all for reading, hope you enjoyed it. Have a wonderful day!

-Jen