Washington, DC - Abraham Lincoln ranked at the top of the 2018 Presidential Greatness Survey. But, says Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens, “perhaps Mr. Lincoln is not popular enough to merit funding the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and that is a shame.”

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation recently issued a statement saying that it needs nearly $10 million to pay off its debt. If it can’t raise the funds, the Foundation says it may have to sell off “unique artifacts on the private market which would likely remove them from public view forever.”

Weber says that the Foundation borrowed $25 million to purchase a large collection of objects relating to Lincoln. These include the 16th president’s iconic stovepipe hat as well as the bloody gloves he wore the night he was killed. They are on display at the Lincoln museum in Springfield, IL alongside the Gettysburg Address, a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and many other irreplaceable items.

Dr. Carla Knorowski, the Lincoln Foundation’s CEO, has made an appeal for help noting “Abraham Lincoln has held iconic status for more than 150 years. His image, which is in the public domain, is recognizable and used with impunity. He has been used to sell everything from perfume to carpeting, automobiles to insurance. And yet many, certainly not all, who profit off him, never seek to donate philanthropically to advance his legacy.”

Weber says that “the library and museum complex, which opened in 2005, attracts as many as 300,000 visitors a year. If that many people donated less than $35 apiece over the next year and a half, the debt would be paid off in full.”