An five-person Illinois delegation led by Lura Lynn Ryan, wife of Illinois Governor George H. Ryan, presented the "Lincoln Legal Papers DVD Edition" to the Library of Congress in a ceremony held February 11, 2000 at the Library's Madison Building in Washington, D.C. The DVD is a digitized collection of more than 100,000 records associated with Abraham Lincoln's legal career from 1836 to 1861 and complements the Lincoln materials in the Library of Congress, many of which are available on-line in a Web presentation called "Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library" (www.loc.gov).

The presentation culminated a 15-year process of compiling and digitizing the Lincoln legal papers.  The digitization of the legal papers and the presentation trip were funded by the Jones Family Foundation as part of its collaboration with the Library of Congress to build the Library's President Lincoln Digital Library.

"Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library" is a part of the on-line historical collections called American Memory.  American Memory is a project of the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress, which aims to make freely available more than 5 million items, in collaboration with other institutions. More than 70 collections are currently on-line.

Donald G. Jones rubbing President Lincoln's nose after the American Legion's 66^th annual National Pilgrimage to Lincoln's Tomb for Lincoln's birthday February 12, 2000.

General Donald Scott (left) Chief Operating Officer of the Library of Congress, and John Sellers (right), one of the nation's leading authorities on President Lincoln, stand before Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, IL.  Scott and Sellers were in Springfield for the celebration of Lincoln's birthday as guests of the Jones Family Foundation.