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'Lincoln' Artifacts Coming To Lincoln Museum

Lincoln movie
DreamWorks Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox

A piece of Hollywood is coming to Illinois. Director Steven Spielberg is sending props and sets from the movie “Lincoln” to be part of a new exhibit at Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.

The museum will get two big sets: the Lincoln bedroom, and the cabinet room in which the president — played by Daniel Day-Lewis — argued for passage of a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.

Day-Lewis won an Oscar for his portrayal of Lincoln. One of his costumes is among the props that are part of an indefinite loan from Spielberg and his DreamWorks Studios. The exhibit will actually be across the street from the museum, in the restored Union Station, which was a train depot in Lincoln's day.

Museum spokesman Chris Wills says there is no timeline for how long the exhibit will last.

"We envision it being here for several years ... five years or so," Wills says. "And if at the end of that period it's still seems to be going well - still seems to be popular - and the kind folks at Dreamworks are still open to letting us use it, then it will remain after that."

DreamWorks isn’t charging the state anything for the loan. Visitors will have to pay $5 to see just the movie stuff, or $3 on top of regular museum admission.

It’s expected to open early next year.

Brian Mackey formerly reported on state government and politics for NPR Illinois and a dozen other public radio stations across the state. Before that, he was A&E editor at The State Journal-Register and Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
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