A traveling museum exhibit set to come to Auburn this spring honoring President Abraham Lincoln's life and accomplishments may be the latest victim of the economic downturn.

Cayuga Community College and the Seward House were to be the only stops in New York the “Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made in America” Bicentennial Tour would make, but a lack of funding is stopping the exhibit truck in its tracks.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Communications Manager David Blanchette said he is “95 percent sure” the tour that began in Illinois in October will conclude at the end of March, six weeks before it was scheduled to visit Cayuga Community College's Auburn and Fulton campuses as well as the Seward House, and well short of the two years it was expected to last.

“It takes quite a bit of sponsorship, of funding, to keep the truck on the road,” Blanchette said, “and due to the current economic situation, the sponsorship dollars have not been coming in at the rate we have hoped.”

While the decision is not yet final, the company from which the presidential library and museum leases the truck on a quarterly basis must have a firm commitment for the spring months by the end of the year. In other words, unless the library finds sponsors in the next few weeks, the tour will not get off the ground.

That is to the dismay of some local leaders, who have spent the last several months establishing plans to honor the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth as well as William Seward's birthday.

“I'm concerned,” Port Byron Central School District social studies teacher Linda Townsend said. “I'm always the eternal optimist, but at this point we dedicated our time and efforts to having this become a reality for the people in our county and central New York.

“As I said, I am still the eternal optimist, and I'm hoping that once people across the nation see that this valuable treasure will not be able to travel because of financial constraints, people will rally together, including President Obama.”

CCC Alumni Association President John Lamphere, whose organization was a local sponsor of the tour, said he has yet to hear anything official from the library regarding the status of the exhibit.

“Everybody we've talked to, every single person we've talked to said this is great, and I would really hate to think that our government in Washington, the president-elect, in his hometown, wouldn't look at this and say, 'This is something worthy to go around the country,'” he said. “This is about Lincoln and Seward. These two men made America.”

But while the tour may fall through, Dana West High School and Cayuga Community College will move forward on plans to offer activities in honor of the bicentennial.

As such, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission has designated both institutions as Lincoln Legacy Bicentennial Schools.

“We will continue and move forward with whatever academic plans or community plans we can put into place.” Townsend said.

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