Part of Air Force museum will close 

DAYTON, Ohio » Construction on a new building at the Air Force museum in southwest Ohio will force temporary closure of the museum’s Missile and Space Gallery.

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton says the gallery will be closed for about five months beginning Dec. 8. Some exterior wall panels of the gallery are being removed to form new entrances for the new building.

The museum’s fourth building is scheduled to open to the public in spring 2016. It will be the new home of the museum’s presidential aircraft, research and development, space and global reach exhibits.

Some missile and space exhibits, including the Apollo 15 command module, will still be accessible during the closure, and the museum also offers a virtual, 3-D tour.

Exhibit features Lincoln’s speeches

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. » The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield has opened a new exhibit on the 16th president.

“Undying Words: Lincoln 1868-1865” opened to the public on Nov. 22. The exhibit includes a handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address, signed copies of the 13th Amendment ending slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as the bed where Lincoln died after being shot at Ford’s Theatre.

The exhibit was timed to mark the museum’s 10th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s death.

Historians from both the Lincoln Presidential Library and the Chicago History Museum will be on hand for the opening. Renowned Lincoln impersonator Fritz Klein will be portraying the president at the exhibit.

Center to focus on women’s history

NEW YORK » The New-York Historical Society is creating a center that will focus on women who played a crucial role in American history at the turn of the 20th century.

The Study of Women’s History is slated to open in December 2016. It will be located in the renovated Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture, on the fourth floor of the Central Park West building.

The women’s center will include permanent and temporary exhibition space and a 1,750-square-foot theater.