Group Hopes to Bring Lincoln Collection to Washington

The collection is becoming available at a time when both Ford's and the American History Museum are undergoing extensive renovations. The museum is expected to reopen in November. The work at the theater is expected to be complete by February.

The cottage, on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home, recently was restored and opened to the public for the first time in February.

The Library of Congress has taken the lead in forming the local partnership. After the Lincoln foundation held an informational meeting in Philadelphia for prospective bidders, the Washington representatives held an impromptu summit on Amtrak. "Everyone saw the advantages of working together. So on the way back we plotted our strategy," Sellers said.

"We believe we would be hard to beat, given the foundation's criteria of visitation, financial ability and the ability to maintain the collection," said Ford's Tetreault.

The manuscript division of the Library of Congress has a vast collection of Lincoln material, including his presidential papers. Other artifacts at the library include the items found in his pockets at the time of his death.

Ford's Theatre, operated by the National Park Service, has preserved the box where Lincoln and his guests were sitting the night of the assassination. It has John Wilkes Booth's derringerpistol, the clothing worn by Lincoln that night and the hoods placed over the co-conspirators at their hanging.

Artifacts at the history museum include the top hat Lincoln was wearing the night of his assassination, his patent model of a device for raising boats off sandbars, the brass inkstand used to draft the Emancipation Proclamation, and the cup he used just before going to Ford's Theatre. "They have the inkwell used at the signing of the Emancipation," Rubenstein said. "Some of these items will be reunited for the first time since the 1860s."