(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — When there's something new at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, it oftentimes is something old.
Collector Guy Fraker of Bloomington has donated a nearly 170-year-old letter Lincoln wrote to a colleague. It’s a letter Fraker bought about 15 years ago from the family of another collector.
“I knew that I could never sell it, so it was sort of money down the drain, in that sense,” Fraker said.
Instead, he’s donating the document.
The letter concerns the U.S. Senate election of 1854 and is a response to a Peoria colleague, who informed Lincoln the 1848 Constitution barred state lawmakers from seeking that seat. Lincoln’s letter, Fraker said, makes it appear he knew all along about the new law.
The museum’s Treasures Gallery will display the letter for about a month, starting July 7, before it goes in for restoration.
Click here for more information about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
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