Financial hat trick means Lincoln foundation won’t have to auction off museum artifacts

A year after launching a GoFundMe to stave off a historic fire sale, new loan terms mean the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation won’t have to sell off a trove of items including a controversial stovepipe hat.

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Abraham Lincoln’s purported iconic stovepipe hat pictured in 2007.

Abraham Lincoln’s purported iconic stovepipe hat pictured in 2007.

AP photo

The hat might never have sat on Lincoln’s head, but it’ll keep hanging at its home in the The Great Emancipator’s namesake Springfield museum — for now, at least. 

More than a year after issuing a warning cry that dire financial straits might force them to sell the prized stovepipe hat that purportedly  — but debatably — belonged to the 16th president, officials from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation announced Wednesday they’ve reached a new loan agreement that means the organization “no longer needs to consider auctioning off any of the artifacts.”

“Selling these unique artifacts was clearly something no one wanted to do,” foundation chairman Ray McCaskey said in a statement. “Now, this important collection will remain available to everyone who visits the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.”

The foundation borrowed $23 million in 2007 to buy the Taper Collection, a trove of more than a thousand items including the bloodstained gloves Lincoln had with him the night of his assassination, and, most notably, the famed beaver-fur hat. 

Abraham Lincoln’s bloodstained gloves and handkerchief Lincoln carried on the night of his death are photographed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

Abraham Lincoln’s bloodstained gloves and handkerchief Lincoln carried on the night of his death are photographed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

AP photo

The historic headwear was originally valued about $6.5 million, though a top museum official acknowledged earlier this year that historians “have found no evidence confirming the hat belonged to President Lincoln.”

Interest and fees ballooned the loan into a $31 million debt, nearly bringing the foundation to the brink in May 2018 when officials announced they’d have to consider selling items from the Taper trove to make ends meet. 

They even resorted to passing the hat through an ill-fated online crowdfunding effort to help close a $9.7 million gap on the loan, eventually pulling the plug on a campaign that only raised about $35,000

But an uptick in private fundraising earlier this year allowed the foundation to make “a larger-than-normal payment to principal,” and they’ve reached a loan extension agreement with Lake Forest Bank & Trust that now matures Oct. 31, 2022, and “includes a more favorable interest rate.” 

The financial hat trick will “ensure the collection remains available to the public until 2022,” but the foundation is still on the hook for the remainder of the loan and “must continue to fundraise for the collection,” officials said. 

They’ve paid off more than $22 million of the $31 million debt. 

“We are very grateful to the team at Lake Forest Bank for supporting us at the outset, and for their willingness to negotiate this important extension as we continue to pay down the debt,” foundation treasurer Sarah Phalen said in a statement. “Working with the ALPLF’s Finance Committee, I believe we have secured a viable path forward to allow us to retire the debt in its entirety.”

The improved financial forecast is a welcome bit of news for a museum that made national headlines last month with revelations that ex-director Alan Lowe bypassed museum protocols when he loaned a “priceless” handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address — and transported it via FedEx — to conservative pundit Glenn Beck’s nonprofit, whose stated mission is “focused on restoring the human spirit.” 

Lowe was fired by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in September, though the reason for his ouster wasn’t given until Nov. 22 with the release of a state watchdog’s report. The museum is a separate entity from the foundation, which is tasked with fundraising.

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