New director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Posted on March 6, 2021
The museum board Friday approved the hiring of Christina Shutt. She begins June 8. (WJBC file photo)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – For the first time, a person of color will lead the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The museum board Friday approved the hiring of Christina Shutt. She begins here June 8.

Shutt, 34, has been director of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock, Ark., since 2019. She is married with a son, 7.

Ray LaHood, chair of the museum board, praised the work of a search firm which helped find Shutt, adding that she is the first truly apolitical hire to be director.

Shutt, who grew up in the Kansas City area, holds degrees from Central Methodist University, Fayette, Mo., and Simmons University, Boston.

The ALPLM has been without a permanent director since the state dismissed Alan Lowe, who loaned the museum’s copy of the Gettysburg Address to talk show host Glenn Beck. Lowe is now director of the American Museum of Science and Energy in Dallas.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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