Community Bicentennial Activities

• Ask local officials to issue a proclamation declaring February 12, 2009 as Abraham Lincoln Day. Find a sample proclamation here.
• Have a Lincoln-related display or exhibit at community courthouse or another public building, or arrange to receive a Lincoln Museums-to-Go traveling exhibit from the Kentucky Historical Society. For more information, see the Community Toolkit Resources page.
• Dedicate a plaque to honor Lincoln and his 200th birthday at your community courthouse or another public building.
• Plan a celebration or reception centered around Lincoln’s 200th birthday.  Invite a speaker to discuss a local history topic. A list of speakers and directions for how to book them is included on the Community Toolkit Resources page
• Prominently feature the new Lincoln Bicentennial license plate at your county clerk’s office; hold a special recognition ceremony.
• Display bunting and flags around your community during the week of Lincoln’s birth, February 8-14, 2009.
• Work with downtown merchants to produce a Lincoln sale or related promotion. Coordinate a Lincoln trivia contest where each participating merchant asks a different question related to Lincoln.  Those who participate in Lincoln trivia can be entered to win Lincoln Bicentennial merchandise, or a Lincoln Bicentennial license plate.
• Recognize Lincoln with a community day of service/volunteering.
• Have your local post office hold a postal cancellation of the new Lincoln stamp, which will be available in February 2009.
• Stage a public reading of some of Lincoln’s most famous speeches. Many of Lincoln’s greatest speeches are available online, or contact Warren Greer at 502-564-1792, ext. 4478, for ideas.
• Invite a Lincoln-related Kentucky Chautauqua character or a Kentucky Historical Society Museum Theatre presenter to your community. Both Museum Theatre actors and characters in the Chautauqua program bring history to life with historically accurate first-person presentations of figures from Kentucky’s past. For more information on Kentucky Chautauqua and Kentucky Historical Society Museum Theatre, see the Community Toolkit Resources page.
• Dedicate February city council/fiscal court meetings to Lincoln and read this proclamation at those meetings.
• Arrange for an official Lincoln speaker through the Kentucky Humanities Council or the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. For information on these programs, see the Community Toolkit Resources page.
• Have a local Scout troop or another organization present a program on 19th century frontier life and tie it in to Lincoln’s boyhood on the Kentucky frontier. Visit the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site Web site at for more information on Lincoln’s childhood.
• Develop a presentation on your community’s 19th century African-American heritage or book a speaker. For more information, contact Tressa Brown with the Kentucky African-American Heritage Commission, 502-564-7005, ext. 125.
• Host a 19th century foods cook-off, and have a community reception for tasting.
• Hold a public viewing of the KET documentary Lincoln: “I, Too, Am a
  Kentuckian.” Consult the Community Toolkit Resources page for information on this documentary and how to obtain a copy.
• Organize a downtown local history tour emphasizing your community as it was in 1809, the year of Lincoln’s birth.
• Highlight your Civil War history through a lecture, living history demonstration, or related public program.
• Organize a public walking tour of your community’s 19th century buildings.  Focus on your local history during Lincoln’s era.
• Partner with your local library to create a Lincoln book discussion group.   See the Book List page.
• Organize a community tour to a Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail site.
• Produce and dedicate a time capsule to be opened in 2059 and 2109, the 250th and 300th anniversaries of Lincoln’s birth.
• Host welcome center days with your local tourism office, where your local tourism office works with local historical societies/museums to produce Lincoln displays for the welcome center.
• Highlight Lincoln programming on your community's Web site and add information to the Lincoln Commission’s online calendar of events at www.kylincoln.org  by contacting Jeanine Scott.