Retrials from Lincoln era raise conservation funds

CHICAGO — Retrials of cases from the era of Abraham Lincoln have helped raise money to conserve rare maps and photographs, including of early Illinois Supreme Court justices.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum says three such productions by it and the high court's preservation commission have raised $269,000. The library and commission will each receive more than $61,000 for conservation.

One retrial was of alleged conspirator in Lincoln's assassination, Mary Surratt. Another was the mental-health case of Mary Todd Lincoln.

One map being conserved is an 1858 Sangamon County map that lists more than 5,000 landowners — all of whom would have been around as Lincoln rose to prominence. There's also an 1860 map that includes the first town in the United States legally founded by an African-American, New Philadelphia.