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20 May 2005

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum

I recently had a chance to visit the newly opened Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. The museum, which opened to the public April 19, is the more public-facing portion of the Presidential Library complex. I’ve read some reviews of the architecture that were rather harsh, and while I agree that the buildings probably won’t win any awards they do fit nicely into what seems to me to be a tradition in Central Illinois (and perhaps the entire Midwest) of building very pragmatic and functional structures. Some of those same reviews also took the museum to task for catering the exhibits to a grade school audience. To me, it makes perfect sense for the museum to do this as their core group of visitors are going to be grade school children on field trips. I’m guessing those responsible for making this choice did so hoping to create a spark of interest in history in at least a few of these children. I’ll agree that we would live in a much better world if we didn’t need to sugar coat our history lessons, but if it takes a little bit of that to reach an otherwise uninterested child so be it.

Overall I greatly enjoyed my visit to the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. I’m not sure I learned a great deal of new information, but then again I’ve read quite a few biographies of Mr. Lincoln. Even so, my interest in our 16th president has been reawakened.

Scholarly Endeavors

Because I recently discovered Google Scholar the other day, and because requests for these documents are still showing up in my logs here are a few papers I wrote a couple years ago:

• Talkin’ ‘Bout: The Oral Poetics of Hip Hop
• Rainbow Gravitism: The Mysticality of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow
• Experience Design: It’s Not Just For Disneyland Anymore

Green Businesses

Speaking of Google, one of my coworkers, Joseph Juhnke, came up with a great idea for a green business directory that leverages the power of Google’s nearly ubiquitous search technology. The site is Seeking Unity, and it gives businesses that care about the environment a chance to get a little recognition and possibly a little free search engine optimization. Seeking Unity is in beta right now, which means that it needs your help to grow.