History buffs from around the west are expected to travel to Sacramento this summer to see items that belonged to Abraham Lincoln.
 
The objects are from the Library of Congress. 
 
They’ll be on display at The California Museum starting Wednesday (June 24^th).
 
It’s part of a national celebration marking the bicentennial of the birth of the 16^th president.
 
Capital Public Radio's Steve Shadley has this preview...

 
Deputy Director at The California Museum, Amanda Meeker stands by as an 18-wheeler full of Lincoln memorabilia pulls up to the building’s loading dock... 
  
“We’ve been waiting for this day for about a year and it’s got Lincoln’s life mask and it’s got his bible that Obama was also sworn in on...and it’s got the rocking chair he used when he was a lawyer...so its pretty amazing...”
 
 
(sound of fork lift unloading the truck)
 
Workers use a forklift to remove the heavy wooden crates from the truck.  Museum staff study reams of paperwork, double-checking to make everything is accounted for.  
 
(sound:  “Let’s look at crate seven, serial code....1-1-2-2...3-4...”)

The exhibit is on loan from the Library of Congress in Washington.    Meeker says Sacramento was selected because of Lincoln’s connection to California... 
  
“The nationwide sponsor of the exhibit is Union Pacific.  So they’re very interested in the transcontinental tie with Lincoln because he signed the bill that authorized that.  California, you know, being the terminus on this end for that railroad...”   
 
(sound of drill removing bolts from crates)
 
Staffers open a few of the crates to check if anything has been damaged.  One of the first things they see is a photograph of Lincoln.  It was taken at the White House just a month before his assassination.    He looks tired.  Meeker says you can tell the civil war had taken its toll on the president... 
  
“And his bowtie was always crooked.  He was certainly a man who didn’t pay a lot of attention to appearances and as you can see in the photographs, his suit will be too big and his hair will be sticking up and I think it actually sort of charming...”
 
Looking at these objects up close gives you a better sense of Abraham Lincoln as a real human being.   That’s the feeling I have when Meeker shows me a manuscript President Lincoln gave to General Ulysses S. Grant.  It’s handwritten by the President himself... 
  
(Shadley asks) So, that’s his actual signature?  (Meeker responds) Yes it is.  (Shadley) He has shakey  writing.  (Meeker laughs)  (Shadley) But its still so clear. Abraham Lincoln.  The “A” in Abraham is very bold and baroque in style...That’s so cool.”
 
The exhibit also includes some haunting objects from Lincoln’s assassination.  There’s an autopsy report splattered with the President’s blood...and even the contents Lincoln’s jacket pocket that fateful night at the Ford Theater... 
  
“The piece that most puzzles people is that he had a five dollar confederate bill with him.  And, of course that will be on display...’
 
That’s Tambra Johnson, a curator with the Library of Congress.  She’s in Sacramento to help set up the exhibit.  Johnson says Lincoln had a few other things in his pocket the night he was shot... 
  
“I found it interesting that he had two pairs of glasses.  And, there’s one that has a string attached to it.  He tied his glasses together at the frame.  They had broken and so he had used a little piece of string to hold them together.  I mean there’s a very human element to that...”
  
The exhibit includes original drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address.  There’s also a giant leather-bound scrapbook where Lincoln pasted newspaper articles about his famous debates with Stephen Douglas.  Kaar Chaffey is also with the Library of Congress... 
  

“Its obviously been handled a lot.  It’s not a great binding, it’s on extremely brittle paper...”
 
Moving such fragile items from one city to another isn’t as easy as putting them in a mail box.
It was Chaffey’s responsibility to fly cross country to personally deliver some of the most valuable Lincoln objects to Sacramento.  Chaffey says she was especially worried about a string of pearls owned by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln... 
  
“The pearls are very sensitive to humidity changes and so we packed them in a very stable way in a bag and we put silica a dessicant inside of the package to stabilize them as we were travelling...”
 
Another big challenge museum officials face is security.  They were required to install additional video cameras and motion detectors to protect the Lincoln estate.  Officials say private contributions helped pay for the upgrades.   As Chaffey inspects each of Lincoln’s belongings, she reflects on her job and her role in preserving history... 
  
“You know when you go through 250 objects you don’t have a chance to look at things very in-depth all the time, but when you really sit down and think about it...most people can’t do this and I can turn the pages and I can...just being able to work on these objects it’s pretty amazing...”
 
After Sacramento, the Lincoln exhibit travels to Chicago, Omaha, Indianapolis and Atlanta.