Abraham Lincoln is coming to Las Cruces. The Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made in America Exhibit will be at Branigan Cultural Center November 20 through December 18 highlighting replica artifacts from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. There is no charge to view the exhibit.

The traveling learning station exhibit will be displayed in 40 public libraries and historical societies over the next two years. It is one of two “We, the People” programs for the Lincoln Bicentennial funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The exhibit covers Lincoln’s childhood, his self-education, careers as a surveyor and lawyer, family life, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the 1860 Presidential election, the Civil War, the 13th Amendment, the Emancipation Proclamation, his assassination and other important periods and events in his life. The reproduction artifacts on display, all modeled from originals in the Presidential Library and Museum, include Lincoln’s favorite books, his son Tad’s toy cannon, the nameplate from his Springfield home, a Presidential campaign banner, an axe that Lincoln used to chop wood, the bloody gloves found in Lincoln’s pocket the night of his assassination and many other unique and interesting items.

“Abraham Lincoln, the son of a subsistence farmer, came of age during a dramatic transformation in America’s economic life. Like many of his contemporaries, he embraced a new emphasis on personal initiative, risk-taking and ambition. He was only 22 when he left his family home to find his own way,” Illinois State Historian Thomas Schwartz says. “After enduring a series of personal failures in business, he became a prosperous attorney, devoted husband and father, successful politician, and, finally, the 16th President of the United States. While Lincoln benefited from close association with a number of powerful friends, his own talents and ambitions combined with hard work and a dedication to self-improvement to produce a unique American specimen – the self-made man.”

The American Library Association of Chicago and the Tribeca Film Institute of New York made strong contributions to the exhibit programming.