Lincoln's Springfield

Lincoln’s Springfield, a groundbreaking exhibit at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site (NHS), opened in February 2024 as a collaboration between the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, the National Park Service (NPS), and McCullough Creative. It explores the stories of six members of Abraham Lincoln’s community: Henry Carrigan, William Donnegan, Charlotte Rodriguis De Souza, Jameson Jenkins, Francis Springer, and Mariah Vance, whose diverse life experiences illustrate the promise and potential of the American experiment. By designing the exhibit for students aged 10 to 14, we were not only addressing the site’s largest student demographic—middle schoolers—we were filling a gap in the city and in the NPS system.

The challenge was twofold: First, the exhibit needed to stand apart from the existing, more traditional displays in the Lincoln neighborhood, which often rely on neutral tones and black-and-white imagery. Second, it had to fit within the confines of a historic, 900-square-foot house. To achieve this, the project partners developed a bold, colorful, and highly interactive space.

At the heart of the exhibit are six digital graphic novels, telling the stories of real people from Lincoln’s Springfield. These individuals, who lived and worked alongside the 16th president, help visitors see history as a collection of personal stories rather than distant events. Life-sized cutouts, compelling quotes, and touch-screen panels make these historical figures feel present. Additionally, an interactive augmented-reality feature allows visitors to place themselves into the scenes of the featured comics. Through this experience, the exhibit shows visitors that they are the main characters in their own life stories—and invites them to consider what kind of impact they will have on the world.

This exhibit, which had its grand opening in February 2024, was the first major project of our public-private partnership, established in 2022. Lincoln Home NHS had not had a new core exhibit in over 20 years and had wanted a youth exhibit for more than 10 years. Together, we achieved a decade-long goal of Lincoln Home NHS in just 18 months. Key to its success was broad engagement, including experts and community stakeholders, facilitating an inclusive content-gathering process.