In addition to President Barack Obama making the 800-mile journey from Illinois to Washington, DC… ala Abraham Lincoln… a mobile museum powered by biodiesel also made that historic trip.
The United Soybean Board says the soybean checkoff-funded biodiesel has been moving the “Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made in America Tour” mobile museum across the U.S. since last spring to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth and will continue through 2010:
“This partnership has provided a good way to spread facts about soy biodiesel in urban areas,” says Phil Bradshaw, a soybean farmer from Griggsville, Ill., and USB Vice Chairman.
As of last November, the mobile museum exhibit had over 100,000 visitors. The presidential inaugural committee invited it to be a part of “The Presidential Experience” exhibit near the Washington, D.C., convention center. The theme of the 2009 presidential inauguration is “A Birth of New Freedom.” This phrase is taken from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as the inauguration also commemorates the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.
This mobile Lincoln museum gives people across the United States the opportunity to learn the story of Lincoln as well as view some items from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. A 3-D presentation of Lincoln’s famous address to Springfield upon leaving for Washington, D.C., is a highlight of the mobile museum and sure to be especially meaningful and timely at the 2009 presidential inauguration.
The mobile museum will stay stationary in DC throughout this month.