Artifact Loan To Glenn Beck Results In Firing

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker fired the director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in September after a state watchdog found he violated procedures by lending an “irreplaceable and priceless” handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address to an upstart museum affiliated with conservative pundit Glenn Beck, according to the Chicago Tribune citing a report released Friday.

The Pritzker administration did not provide an explanation for Alan Lowe’s firing when it was announced Sept. 20, but the newly released report shows the Office of Executive Inspector General on Sept. 3 recommended his immediate termination following a seven-month investigation.

The museum’s copy of the Gettysburg Address, one of five known copies written in Lincoln’s hand, was lent to Beck's new museum called Mercury One in June 2018 for an exhibit as part of a “‘pop-up’ museum,” according to the inspector general’s report.

Lowe, the former director of the George W. Bush Presidential Center who took over at the Springfield museum in July 2016, ignored the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s standard practices for loaning items, according to the inspector general report.

After the Gettysburg Address arrived at its destination in Texas, the Facebook page of Beck’s The Blaze, posted a live video showing "Beck and a woman referred to in the video as a curator together lifting the Gettysburg Address out of the crate with gloved hands and carrying it to a table,” according to the report.

In interviews with the inspector general’s office, state historian Samuel Wheeler and another museum official described the event as “unprofessional,” the report says.

“The people of Illinois are fortunate that the Gettysburg Address and other artifacts ultimately returned safely to the ALPLM in June 2018, despite the risks that were taken,” the report says.

In recommending Lowe’s firing, the report also noted that he attempted to make two additional loans to Mercury One that never came to fruition, one because the planned exhibit never occurred and one because it was blocked by Lincoln museum staff.