Ford’s Theatre–you may have heard of it, a certain president was shot there–is opening a new “Center for Education and Leadership.” That is, a new museum about Abraham Lincoln and what a big deal he is. I went through it last weekend after singing on the theater stage (so cool), and honestly, I hadn’t had lunch and was pretty out of it, so I don’t have any pictures from the galleries.

But I do have this:

Visitors enter the new center at the top level, via an elevator from the house where Lincoln died, then wind their way down past the galleries via this spiral staircase.

In the middle is a huge stack of  books written about Lincoln. Ok, it isn’t actually made of paper books. It’s a sculpture made of lightweight aluminum replicas of books. But still. Impressive. There’s even a little book of Lincoln stickers near the bottom.

I wonder if someone who wants to write a book about Lincoln would find that inspiring or daunting? What on earth could you find to say about our 16th president that one of the other thousands of authors hasn’t thought of?

I learned today from NPR that this is only about half of the 15,000 books about Abraham Lincoln.

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photo: me