Illinois State Museum to launch bicentennial exhibit

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The Illinois State Museum is launching a new exhibit featuring rare artifacts to celebrate the state's bicentennial.

The Bicentennial and Beyond! The Illinois Legacy Collection will open on Saturday and tell the story of Illinois from its past to the present, The State Journal-Register reported. It'll showcase artifacts from the museum's 13.5-million-object collection, including fine art, anthropological, botanical and zoological pieces.

Erika Holst is the museum's curator of decorative arts and history. She said the exhibit "highlights the best of the best of that collection."

"We've got this really rich, diverse history and all these interesting moments in history, all this fantastic artwork, all these interesting animal specimens, this great prehistory," said Holst. "So if people ... come away being proud of the state they live in, that'll be great."

Some of the exhibit's items belonged to prominent historical figures, such as the black bodice worn by President Abraham Lincoln's widow Mary Todd Lincoln.

The museum also features artifacts from residents, such as a rocking chair owned by Thomas Richardson, an African-American man whose brother was falsely accused of raping a white woman. The case subsequently sparked the 1908 Springfield Race Riot. Richardson and his family fled to Mississippi until the riot ended.

Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration closed the museum in late 2015 as a cost-saving measure. It reopened July 2016, but has continued to struggle. Museum officials hope that the celebration marking Illinois' 200th year will lead to renewed public interest.

The exhibit will remain open through February 2019.

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Information from: The State Journal-Register, http://www.sj-r.com