BLOOMINGTON Ill. (WMBD) — The McLean County Museum of History is celebrating Presidents’ Day by bringing out two handwritten documents from Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln first came to Bloomington in 1837 as a lawyer on the 8th judicial circuit.
The new museum display includes a page-and-a-half legal document and a letter to a Bloomington attorney regarding debt collection.
The museum acquired the letters several years ago after they were donated to them by a Lincoln scholar.
Archivist Bill Kemp said it’s easy for people to overlook his law career with his other accomplishments.
“In the 1850s, he leads this emerging political movement to oppose the expansion of slavery. He is the moral and political voice for that movement in Illinois, and it changes this nation, and it changes the world, and again Bloomington plays a role in that story,” said Kemp.
The Museum is offering free admission on Presidents’ Day and the following Tuesday.