By EDWARD HUSAR

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Fifteen additional wayside exhibits celebrating Quincy's ties to Abraham Lincoln are to be delivered this month and installed at various locations downtown.

The exhibits were initially scheduled to arrive in June, but delivery was pushed back to around July 22.

Once installed, the 15 new exhibits -- along with three existing storyboards erected last year -- will provide a lasting educational insight into Quincy's connections with the nation's 16th president.

All 18 waysides were commissioned by Quincy's Lincoln Bicentennial Commission as part of the community's celebration of the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

Three of the waysides were delivered in 2008 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Quincy's Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Two of those storyboards were placed in Washington Park near the site where Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas held the sixth of their seven Illinois debates while competing for a U.S. Senate seat in 1858. The third storyboard -- placed at the northwest corner of Ninth and Hampshire -- tells how Lincoln recuperated after the grueling debate.

The remaining 15 exhibits will tell other stories about Lincoln's Quincy connections and provide insight into the economic, political and cultural climate during Lincoln's era.

Once all 18 exhibits are in place, Quincy will have the second-highest concentration of Lincoln-related waysides in Illinois, according to Hal Smith, director of the Springfield-based Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition. Only Springfield, with 48, will have more storyboards than Quincy. Smith said Decatur will have 15 while Bloomington, Jacksonville and Clinton each will have 10.

The coalition is financing most of the $169,300 cost for Quincy's 18 exhibits. Drawing from a federal grant, the coalition is paying $100,600, while Quincy is coming up with its $68,700 share through private donations raised by the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

"The private contributions for your 18 is a very significant contribution," Smith said. "You might be No. 1 in that sense. That's a very fine thing. It demonstrates the public support you have there."

Chuck Bevelheimer, Quincy's director of planning and development, said the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is still crafting plans for dedicating the new wayside exhibits. The commission also is working out plans to celebrate the opening of a new Lincoln Interpretive Center at 128 N. Fifth -- across the street from Washington Park.

Bevelheimer said the commission plans to develop a brochure for a self-guided tour of the exhibits.

"We've also talked about doing a bicycle tour," he said. "We've talked about having bikes available at the interpretive center or doing something creative like that" to encourage the public to visit the exhibits.

As a full-fledged member of the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition, Quincy and its wayside exhibits will be featured on the coalition's Web site and in other promotional materials touting the Looking for Lincoln Story Trail.

A link on the coalition's Web site displays a map of Illinois communities where 210 Looking for Lincoln storyboards are being erected. By late this year, Smith said, the coalition hopes to convert this into an interactive "Google map" listing GPS coordinates for all of the exhibits so visitors can find them using a GPS device.

Smith said he met recently with tourism officials from Quincy, Pittsfield and Jacksonville to talk about ways they can work together to promote the "western loop" of the trail.

-- ehusar@whig.com/221-3378