PORT BYRON - Born two centuries ago in a one-room log cabin, Abraham Lincoln rose from a modest upbringing to become arguably one of the greatest presidents in United States history.

While schoolchildren start learning at a young age, the significance of Lincoln's presidency through textbooks and other media, few may get the opportunity to travel to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.

But that's no matter; if a group of local stakeholders get their way, the museum will come to them and the community at large.

To celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in 2009, Port Byron Central School District social studies teacher Linda Townsend, the Cayuga Community College Alumni Association and the Cayuga County Community College Foundation are working to bring a traveling museum exhibit sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation detailing Lincoln's life and accomplishments to Auburn and the CCC Fulton campus this spring.

The initial plan was to bring the “Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made in America” Bicentennial Tour - which will travel across the nation for the next two years - to the Fulton campus May 12 and 13, the Auburn campus May 14 and 15, with a stop at the Seward House on May 16, William Seward's birthday. To date, Auburn and Fulton are the only exhibit sites in New York with the exhibit open to the public and free of charge.

While those plans are now in the air since the national economy became unstable, local organizers are optimistic that everything will work out within the next few weeks.

“This is something that benefits all of New York state and reaches into the families of Cayuga,” Townsend said, “where families will have a chance to view this outstanding exhibit, which also touches history that's right in our own backyards on South Street with the Seward House.”

Townsend, a social studies teacher at Dana L. West High School, first learned about the Lincoln mobile tour while studying at the presidential library as a Horace Mann Fellow, an Illinois-based company providing auto insurance to teachers that is dedicated to providing educational opportunities to teachers and families.

Upon learning of the tour, Townsend approached the CCC Alumni Association, for which she serves as a board member, and its president, John Lamphere, to see if there was interest to bring it to the college.

Lamphere said the alumni association places a heavy emphasis on history, especially Civil War history, given Auburn's connection to Seward and Harriet Tubman, and jumped at the opportunity. Through the aid of the CCC Foundation, the alumni association secured the local share of the tour, he said.

In addition to the tour, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission has designated Dana L. West High School as a Lincoln Legacy Bicentennial School.

For that designation, Townsend will teach a course, “Leadership in American Polity,” through which students will study Lincoln's leadership in politics and out in the community. She also intends to schedule an assembly and students will participate in a national teach-in on Feb. 12, the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

Pointing to the election of Barack Obama as the country's first black president, she said that Lincoln's work can be realized now more than ever.

“The whole purpose of this is to provide students with an understanding of how Lincoln shaped this country,” she said.

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net