Case Study

FARMINGTON HISTORIC HOME Louisville, KY

TASK

Create schematic designs and build museum exhibits for Farmington Historic Home. Farmington was built between 1815 and 1816 for John (1772-1840) and Lucy Fry (1788-1874) Speed. In 1841, Farmington hosted its most famous guest, Abraham Lincoln. Tired and despondent over a break in his relations with Mary Todd of Lexington and the direction his political career was taking, Lincoln came to Farmington to visit with his great friend Joshua Speed, John's son, and his family. Lincoln wrote a famous letter to Mary Speed, eldest of the Speed daughters, following his stay with the Speeds thanking her for the family's hospitality and recounting a disturbing encounter on board the return steamboat to St. Louis. Here he witnessed the transport down-river of a group of newly sold slaves. This narrative is thought to have been Lincoln's first known written reference to the horrors of slavery. When Lincoln was elected President of the United States, he invited Joshua to join his Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. Joshua, having no political ambition, declined but suggested his brother James Speed, a successful Louisville lawyer, who, in December 1864, became Lincoln's Attorney General. James held that position until 1866.

SCOPE OF WORK

Working with Solid Light, of Louisville, KY, WGI executed designs and fabricated exhibits for a new exhibition, "Lincoln and Farmington: An Enduring Friendship." Scope of work included structural design and construction documents, object handling, casework, and installation. Innovative detailing and construction methods were required to accomplish the installation including the hanging and presentation of objects associated with Farmington's slave population, jewels from the Speed Family, and historic letters Lincoln wrote to his friend and former roommate, Joshua Speed.