Monday: People
LAKE LIFE
E B R AT I N G T H E P E O P L E O F T H E F I N G E R L A K E S
• PORT BYRON •
King Bible in new exhibit
Last February we learned of our
historic connection to President Abra-
ham Lincoln with the gifted bible from
Erie Canal boatman
and farmer Amos S.
King. This bible is
now part of a new
exhibit at Hildene,
the Lincoln family
home in Manchester,
Vt. I recently visited
the museum, toured
the grounds and met
Dawn many of the wonder-
Roe ful staff and volun-
teers that make a visit
to Hildene a memo-
rable experience.
What I didn’t expect to see was
their efforts toward education and
conservation. Hildene has recently
built a 21st-century barn that will pro-
duce goat cheese. The day we visited,
we were lucky to catch the goats in
training for the milking process. With
the exception of a few timbers, the
barn was constructed from trees culti-
vated within their own 412-acre
estate. The farm itself is 100-percent
self-sufficient and does not consume
any electricity from the power grid.
Their power is generated from solar
panels. They also have a furnace sys-
tem that converts scrap wood materi-
als back into an energy source for the
farm. The farm also houses several
honeybee hives. Once the goat pro-
cessing is open for business, the
cheese will be made on site and sold at
the visitor’s center. They already sell
honey at their store, where you can
also find many books and others items
pertaining to Lincoln history.
Visiting the home of the president’s
son is a step back in time. The home is
nestled in the Vermont mountains,
where the views are nothing less than
stunning. You must visit the garden to
appreciate the beauty that surrounds
this magnificent estate. The home
itself contains many artifacts used by
the family of Robert Todd Lincoln,
including clothing, his library and
other daily household items. The new
Lincoln exhibit is housed in the upper
level at Hildene. Paula Maynard, press
relations liaison, describes the new
exhibit:
“Hildene, the Lincoln family home,
From left, Raymond Roe Sr., Hildene press relations liaison Paula Maynard and
Dawn Roe stand with the Amos S. King Bible from Port Byron featured in the
Lincoln exhibit.
announces the opening of its new
Abraham Lincoln exhibit, ’The Ameri-
can Ideal: Abraham Lincoln and the
Second Inaugural’ on Saturday, Sep-
tember 5.
“Set within the context of Lincoln’s
second inaugural, which harkens back
to the then-radical beliefs first enun-
ciated in the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, visitors will learn how the Civil
War and President Lincoln helped
bring life and meaning to the promise
of the American ideal of equality, jus-
tice and opportunity for all.
“The exhibit thoughtfully uses text
from the speech, considered to be the
president’s greatest, and artifacts from
the collections of Hildene and Brown
University’s John Hay Library, one of
the five great Lincoln collections. The
two institutions recently formalized
their partnership with a Memorandum
of Understanding and the formation of
the Hildene-Brown Collaborative.
“Among the artifacts included in
the exhibit are: one of only three of
Lincoln’s iconic stovepipe hats in exis-
tence, one of his Bibles, a cast of the
president’s hands, a life mask and a
scrapbook that belonged to a support-
ing actress who appeared in the pro-
duction of ’Our American Cousin,’ the
Monday, September 21, 2009 A7
The entrance to
Hildene’s new
Lincoln exhibit,
“The American
Ideal: Abraham
Lincoln and the
Second Inaugural.”
Photo provided
Photo provided
play the President was watching on
the evening of the assassination. The
scrapbook contains a swatch of wall-
paper from his Ford’s Theater box.
Also in the exhibit is a playbill from
this final performance. A bust of
Thomas Jefferson, principal author of
the Declaration of Independence, is on
loan from the Jefferson Legacy Foun-
dation.
The Lincoln Family Home at
Hildene is open daily from 9:30 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m. Admission, which
includes the exhibit, is $12.50 for
adults, $5 for children 6-14 and free for
children younger than 6, Hildene
members and volunteers. For more
information on Hildene, visit
www.hildene.org, call (802) 362-1788
or e-mail info@hildene.org.“
It was very surreal to stand next to
the Bible and see mounted on the wall
a description card that reads “from
Port Byron, New York.”
Dawn Roe is historian for the village of Port
Byron. She can be reached at 776-8446 or
e-mail beatatune@tds.net. Visit the
Historian Blog at
http://www.portbyronhistorian.com