Abraham Lincoln said, “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”

He was referring to politics, not museums. But the announcement on Monday that the Lincoln Museum is closing has patrons and supporters of the nearly 80-year-old Fort Wayne icon asking why the $20 million collection cannot remain in Fort Wayne.

“We will not be in the business of managing a museum,” said Priscilla Brown, vice president of Lincoln Financial Group. Lincoln’s charitable arm, the Lincoln Financial Foundation, owns and operates the private museum located in Renaissance Square, 201 E. Wayne St. The museum is touted as the world’s largest private collection of memorabilia of the 16th president of the United States.

The foundation board voted to close the museum by June 30, citing the main reasons as too few visitors and lagging interest in history museums compared with more interactive museums. Seventy-nine key artifacts, such as Lincoln’s cane and a rocking chair he sat in, will be moved to another public museum or museums. A copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln, as well as one of 13 original copies of the 13th Amendment signed by Lincoln, also will be offered up for relocation.

Brown maintains the decision to close was not a financial one.

“There will be no money saved from (the closing). This is not at all in the interest of saving money,” she said. According to 2006 Internal Revenue Service documents filed by the nonprofit foundation, the museum’s total income was about $458,000, including investment income, sales, admissions and rentals. Although Friends of the Lincoln Museum’s income was about $113,000 in the same year, the foundation paid almost $1.6 million to operate the museum, including salary and benefits of nearly $325,000 for the four highest-paid museum employees.

“The revenue certainly has not covered the cost,” Brown said. By offering up the collection to museums in larger cities, “the Lincoln Museum will now have a bigger stage.”

The decision to close spurred at least one longtime supporter to resign from the Friends of the Lincoln Museum, a group of about 1,000 Fort Wayne area residents who volunteer at and help raise funds for the museum.

“I’m sad that the community wasn’t given the opportunity to engage in that decision to try and come up with a solution,” said Marilyn Moran Townsend, who has been a board member of Friends of the Lincoln Museum for two years. Townsend said she was told “decision-making was under way” in late fall. Lincoln officials said they began officially telling employees and Friends members early Monday.

“I couldn’t support the decisions that were being made. It’s been a wonderful asset to our community and a national treasure,” she said.

Lincoln Foundation board members will begin meeting soon to decide the process for dispersing items and accepting resumes, of sorts. All nine members live in the Philadelphia area, where Lincoln moved its national headquarters from Fort Wayne in 1998.

At this point, the board has made only two stipulations regarding the collection: “We will not put it in private hands,” Brown said. The entity or entities also must show that they have the financial means to properly maintain the exhibit items and that the items will be located in a place with high numbers of visitors.

“We do not know where it is going,” Brown said of the collection of artifacts considered the most valuable. “The permanent exhibit needs to be compelling,” she said, noting, “It is possible some of the items will be separated.” The originals of the digitized documents likely will remain in Fort Wayne at the current museum site, although no definite decision has been made.

Lincoln officials said they expect high interest from museums around the nation for the key items in the collection. About 40 U.S. museums have a strong interest in Abraham Lincoln memorabilia. The future of the award-winning magazine of the museum, “Lincoln Lore,” remains unknown, they said. Last year, the Chicago Tribune named the magazine one of the top 50 in the nation, along with others such as “National Geographic” and “Vanity Fair.”

Brown said the decision to close does not imply the foundation or Lincoln Financial Group is not committed to Fort Wayne. The foundation, which also relocated to Philadelphia from Fort Wayne, has given $27 million in grants to various Fort Wayne community organizations and projects in the past five years and will grant another $3 million this year, said Sandra Kemmish, director of the foundation. In total, the foundation has given $60 million to six communities in the past five years.

Brown also pointed out that Fort Wayne is Lincoln Financial Group’s largest employee base, with 1,850 current employees, up from 1,500 three years ago, mostly due to growth of the company’s annuities business.

“What we have seen is what is happening around the country. Attendance has declined,” Brown said. “A huge investment would need to be made to energize the exhibit. If we thought the prospects of growing in attendance were high, we probably wouldn’t be at the table,” Brown said during Monday’s meeting with media members around a conference table.

In 2006, 7,500 schoolchildren visited the museum, compared with 12,000 a decade earlier. According to IRS documents, total attendance in 2006 was 47,000, but Lincoln spokeswoman Annette Moser said attendance in recent years averaged out at about 40,000 annually.

Dan O’Connell, president and CEO of Fort Wayne/Allen County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that attendance in 2007 rose to about 60,000 from 47,000 in 2006.

Fort Wayne Community Schools spokeswoman Krista Stockman said over the years, the schools have taken fewer field trips because state standards for academics have risen, but the Lincoln trip hasn’t been dropped off of the list.

“We do still have classes that go over there, but it’s probably not the same number that would go over there in the past,” she said.

East Allen County Schools said no changes have been made to the Lincoln field trip, especially since receiving a grant to send students five years ago.

“I think we’ve had pretty good participation,” EACS Superintendent Kay Novotny said, adding it’s a regular fifth-grade trip each year.

The museum has about 20 full-time, part-time and contract employees. All but perhaps one or two are expected to end employment by June 30, Brown said, noting a couple people will be needed to maintain the archived print documents at the current site.

Like Townsend, Friends of the Lincoln Museum board member Liz Schatzlein is dismayed at the decision. The timing, she said, is terrible in light of next year being the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.

“The whole country is going to celebrate Lincoln,” she said, “and we’re going to wave as the moving van goes.”


Metro reporters Ashley Smith and Bob Caylor contributed to this story.