Chicago History Museum celebrates Lincoln’s bicentennial with new interactive exhibit

In celebration of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial (1809-2009), the Chicago History Museum opened its “Abraham Lincoln Transformed” exhibit this fall. Part of that exhibit is an interactive electronic map that shows visitors when – and which - states began to secede from the Union during the early days of the Civil War. The Museum’s Director of Exhibits, Tamara Biggs, asked Chicago Scenic to assist in creating the map.

The map is approximately four-feet by six-feet and wall-mounted. Below the map is a two-foot by two-foot kiosk with a slider mechanism mounted over a timeline. When visitors move the slider bar across the timeline, states that seceded in the corresponding years on the timeline light up on the map, allowing visitors to see the secession progression.

“The challenge of this project,” says CSSI Project Manager Brian Stockmaster, “was lining up critical points of the map fabrication. We cut the acrylic map form on our CNC machine. Then we applied the map graphic onto the acrylic. If the two forms were not perfectly lined up, shadowing occurred along the state lines.

“To solve the problem,” Brian said, “we eventually used a pen to temporarily outline the state lines on the acrylic, then applied the graphic to the acrylic back by hand, and painstakingly aligned the graphic to the temporary markings on acrylic. That was the only way we could assure that the alignment was perfect.”

The “Abraham Lincoln Transformed” exhibit will be open until mid-April 2010.

Intrepid adds 9/11 exhibit

Gary Heitz, Chicago Scenic senior project manager, continues to assist New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum with its exhibit installation. The newest exhibit that Heitz helped coordinate was the 9/11 installation.

In the days following the 9/11 attacks, the Intrepid served as replacement headquarters for the F.B.I.’s New York field office, which had been located at the World Trade Center. In memory of those individuals who died during the attacks and in honor of the many survivors, the Museum installed this 13-foot tall, seven-foot wide, 3,000-pound steel fragment from the fallen Towers.

Organizers of the memorial said they chose to place it at the far end of the pier to give victims’ families a quiet place to remember their lost loved ones.

Gary worked closely with Precision Welding, located in New Jersey, who provided logistical support when the steel fragment was moved into place. They also created the supporting stand for the steel fragment and bolted it in place at the pier end, created the exhibit curb and installed the window in front of the exhibit.

The Museum added an accompanying plaque after this photograph was taken.