Does anyone know of a city or county that has sold bonds in order to 
fund public archaeology or research on existing collections? Last week, 
Bloomberg.com carried an article by Joe Mysak that describes how the 
City of Springfield, Illinois sold $23 million in municipal bonds to 
finance the purchase of a major collection of Abraham Lincoln artifacts 
for the Lincoln Presidential Library. For those interested, I've 
included the article below. I am curious if anyone has attempted 
anything similiar for archaeological excavations or collections.

Thanks,
Hank


Springfield Sells Bonds for Mary Lincoln's Bloomers

Commentary by Joe Mysak

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Municipalities sell bonds to build roads and 
sewers, buy new ambulances and police cruisers, repair and maintain 
bridges. Sometimes they use them to buy stuff like Abraham Lincoln's 
hat and gloves, and Mary Lincoln's bloomers.

The city of Springfield, Illinois, sold $23 million in community 
improvement revenue bonds back in September for the Abraham Lincoln 
Presidential Library Foundation Project. I didn't spot these bonds when 
they were first sold, but this seems an appropriate time, between 
Lincoln's birthday on Feb. 12 and the Presidents Day holiday, to catch 
up.

The Springfield bonds are just another example of why the municipal 
market is a wonder of the world.

Springfield was Lincoln's home before he was elected the 16th president 
in 1860, and is the site of the Lincoln presidential library and museum.

The ``Project'' is spelled out in a lengthy description on Page 3 of 
the offering documents to the bonds: ``The proceeds of the Bonds will 
be used to refinance the costs of a community improvement project 
consisting of acquiring a collection of approximately 1,500 items of 
personal property consisting in part of furniture, manuscripts, 
campaign ribbons, medal tokens, campaign posters, campaign tickets and 
ballots, and campaign torches, artifacts, prints, photographs, 
paintings, sculpture, books, pamphlets, broadsides, sheet music, 
newspapers, films, recordings, postal covers, stationery, coins, 
currency and stamps pertaining primarily to the life of Abraham 
Lincoln.''

`Magic of Stuff'

The bonds are being used to pay off a $23 million loan used last summer 
to acquire ``the Project,'' which is the collection of Louise Taper of 
Beverly Hills, California.

Selling bonds to add to a museum's collection seems to be unusual; most 
museums sell bonds for capital improvements. Yet, this being the 
municipal market, I can't say the Lincoln offering is a first. There's 
always some odd little deal out there that might have been first in 
terms of building a collection.

Maybe more museums will sell bonds to buy stuff in the future, as items 
come up for sale that they simply must have. Certainly, this was the 
case with the Taper collection of Lincolniana, long reputed to be one 
of the best in private hands.

It featured prominently in my old friend Andrew Ferguson's book ``Land 
of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America,'' published last year by 
Atlantic Monthly Press.

Ferguson wrote about Taper, a self-taught buff whose husband's fortune 
bankrolled her ``Lincoln fever,'' as she put it, in a chapter titled 
``The Magic of Stuff.''

Stovepipe Hat

``I always knew just what I wanted,'' Taper told Ferguson. ``I wanted 
the personal Lincoln, I wanted the unusual Lincoln, I wanted the family 
Lincoln. And I wanted every phase of his life.''

The Taper collection includes Lincoln's beaver-skin stovepipe hat -- 
one of three known -- a billfold, the gloves he wore on the night of 
his assassination and his wife's undergarments. There are lots of other 
items, some of which Taper donated as gifts to the museum.

At one point in the chapter, Taper tells Ferguson, ``And that's the 
chamber pot he used in the White House.''

The author observes: ``You own Abraham Lincoln's chamber pot.'' Taper 
has decided to keep that item.

Well, there's not much more to say, is there? How could the museum not 
buy this treasure-trove?

Presidential Library

The bonds were sold in two parts, with $13 million carrying a 4.25 
percent coupon due in 2017, callable at par in 2010, and $10 million, 
also due in 2017, at an interest rate set weekly, most recently at 2.20 
percent. The bonds were underwritten by Harris Bank, which also 
provided a letter of credit.

Normally, at this point, I would pull apart the bond documents and 
financial statements, detail museum attendance and fund raising, and 
pretty much try to discredit the whole thing. Tourist attractions don't 
have a good track record in the municipal market.

Not this time.

For one thing, we're talking about a presidential library and museum. 
For another, it's not just any leader, but Lincoln, who is generally 
considered by most historians to be in the first rank of U.S. 
presidents.

I'm wagering that Lincoln, always a canny politician, can still bring 
home the bacon. And so does Rick Beard, executive director of the 
library and museum, who told the New York Times last week that he was 
looking for some special donors to help retire the bonds.

(Joe Mysak is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Joe Mysak in New York at 
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Last Updated: February 15, 2008 00:17 EST