After a two-year, multimillion-dollar renovation, the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum is open to the public. Visitors are once again welcomed to visit one of the world's largest private collections of Lincoln and Civil War material anywhere in the world.
Upcoming Events
Saturday, September 26, 2026 9am to 2pm
Join us for a day of genealogy fun! Learn how to research your long-lost family or to document your family tree for future generations. There will be speakers and hands-on learning throughout the session. Each registered person will receive a bag of goodies, along with drawings for door prizes. Lunch is also included in the registration.
Registration fee: $30
Register HERE
Contact Susan Parker at 423-869-6583 or by email susan.parker@lmunet.edu
Friday, October 30, 2026 6pm to 8pm
Black crepe draped the mirrors. Clocks stopped at the moment of death. Locks of hair became treasured keepsakes. The dead were photographed as if they were merely sleeping.
This Halloween, step into the somber world of Victorian mourning and discover the rituals that surrounded death in the nineteenth century, a world Abraham and Mary Lincoln knew all too well. Mary Lincoln endured unimaginable tragedy. She buried three of her four sons, mourned her husband, the president, struck down by an assassin's bullet, while sitting beside him, and struggled through grief in an era when death was a constant companion. Victorian Americans developed elaborate customs to honor the dead, preserve memories, and confront mortality in ways that can seem haunting to modern audiences.
Join licensed funeral directors and embalmers for an unforgettable evening exploring the darker side of Victorian America. Examine authentic funeral traditions, the emergence of embalming during the Civil War, mourning clothing, postmortem photography, hair jewelry crafted from the deceased's hair, elaborate funeral processions, cemetery symbolism, and the superstitions that surrounded death and burial.
Learn how President Lincoln's funeral became one of the most extraordinary public mourning events in American history, why thousands viewed his embalmed body as it traveled more than 1,600 miles by funeral train, and how his assassination forever transformed American funeral practices. Was Mary Lincoln truly consumed by grief? Why were mirrors covered after a death? What secrets did Victorian mourning jewelry conceal? And how did funeral directors prepare the nation's fallen president for one of history's most famous funerals?
Experience an evening where history meets the macabre as we uncover the fascinating and unsettling customs that defined death in the Victorian age.
Recommended for ages 13 and older. This program is educational in nature and explores historical mourning and funeral practices with sensitivity and respect.
This is a free program. However, tickets are suggested for a guarenteed spot.
Tickets can be reserved HERE
The Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum is located on the historic campus of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. Housing one of the top five Lincoln and Civil War private collections in the world, the Museum is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from noon to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (March through November).
Family Membership
For $60 a year, all individual member/subscriber benefits, plus free ALLM admission for up to four guests per visit for one year
Hours
Please note that the museum is closed on Easter weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, and during all Lincoln Memorial University holiday closures.
The Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum will be closed along with LMU offices beginning on Monday, June 29th, 2026 for Independence Day 250th. The museum will reopen on Monday, July 6th, 2026 at 10am.
