2013 Civil War Travelogues — Lincoln Exhibition at Reagan Presidential Library

Welcome to my 2013 travelogue pages, commemorating the third year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial! This report covers my September trip to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to visit their special exhibition on Abraham Lincoln. To see the entire list of my 2013 trips, go here.

Here is a reminder about the reason I write these pages the way I do. They record my experiences and impressions of Civil War trips primarily for my future use. Thus, they sometimes make assumptions about things I already know and focus on insights that I receive. They are not general-purpose descriptions for people unfamiliar with the Civil War, although I do link to various Wikipedia articles throughout. Apologies about the quality of interior photographs—I don't take fancy cameras with big flashes to these events. If you would like to be notified of new travelogues, connect to me via Facebook.

Tuesday, September 17

For a few months this summer, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library hosted a special exhibition on Abraham Lincoln. Since this involved my second favorite and favorite president, respectively, my wife Nancy and I decided to drive down to visit. We stayed in Santa Barbara Monday and Tuesday nights and returned to our home on Wednesday. The library is in Simi Valley, about an hour east from Santa Barbara. This is a relatively brief report, primarily to record my photographs.

The exhibition was pretty decent, with the highlight being re-created movie sets from Spielberg's movie, Lincoln. (I guess it helps that Ron and Nancy had such great Hollywood connections.) We were told by one of the docents that most of the artifacts on display outside of the sets were from private collections, so there were not any real blockbuster items on display. One that impressed me the most was a letter from Lincoln to Henry W. Halleck on July 7, 1863, hopeful that Meade would do something about pursuing Lee after Gettysburg. The only problem with the exhibition was that the lighting was kept exceptionally dim to protect the historic documents, so you really had to strain to make out the details. Another highlight for me was the presence of an astounding larger than life bust of Abraham Lincoln, created by Hollywood special effects makeup artist and sculptor, Kazuhiro Tsuji. (Here is a news article about the sculpture.) I say astounding because it was absolutely lifelike in every detail (other than being for a president who would have been over 10 feet tall), including exceptionally lifelike hair, beard, and even the individual specks of stubble where he shaved. You could see the moisture glistening in his eyes. My photographs below cannot really do it justice. (I hope this guy never chooses to do such a sculpture of me. It would freak me out.)

We also spent a few hours going through the Reagan exhibitions, which are well worth visiting even if you are not a big fan, as I am. I found two surprising aspects of the museum. First, Air Force One is on display, and this version based on a Boeing 707 that Reagan flew in is extraordinarily cramped inside. If you have ever seen the Harrison Ford movie, you will be amazed at the difference in the plane interiors. (For some reason, they do not allow photography inside the plane.) The other surprise was that the otherwise comprehensive exhibits about Reagan's life and career do not go into any detail about the economic recovery that he brought about. They talk about how bad the economy was when he took office, but the only thing they say after that is to show Morning in America TV commercials from the 1984 campaign. I guess they thought the average visitor would not like to see bar graphs.