 A stovepipe hat that reputedly belonged to Abraham Lincoln is one of the most historically sacred objects displayed at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, but there’s insufficient evidence to prove it ever actually belonged to the former president. He added that there are no plans to display it again “until we finish our new round of research and can decide the most accurate way to present it to visitors.” 
 
 For its story, WBEZ looked at a “previously undisclosed FBI analysis” and another investigation done by “top curators” from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and Chicago History Museum. It is the $6.5 million centerpiece of a major $25 million acquisition of Lincoln artifacts in 2007 by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, a nonprofit that operates independently of the Springfield, Illinois museum. The recent revelations come as the financially troubled foundation is trying to raise money to avoid having to sell its trove of Lincoln artifacts. But a Nov. 4, 2013 report written by officials at the Smithsonian and Chicago History Museum concluded there is inadequate documentation to support either assertion or to say categorically that Lincoln even owned the hat. The Lincoln museum’s current executive director, Alan Lowe, said he did not see their full report until last month when Lewis shared a copy of the long-shelved report. That’s one takeaway from two investigations — one done with cloak-and-dagger-like secrecy — into the scuffed, slightly crumpled hat that its Springfield guardians have long insisted belonged to Abraham Lincoln. “The DNA testing was inconclusive, as expected with an item that has been handled by many people over 180 years.” 
 
 Nick Kalm, vice chairman of the foundation, told the Chicago Sun-Times the museum has been fully informed all along. Two tests were performed in 2015, comparing DNA samples from the hat itself with Lincoln’s blood-spattered handkerchief, gloves, and shirt from the night of his assassination, and two tufts of Lincoln’s hair, among other things. Underscoring the secrecy, federal agents were encouraged by the museum’s former Lincoln curator, James Cornelius, to “disguise themselves as a news crew” when they entered the museum, Lowe told WBEZ, based on internal correspondence only recently discovered. Lowe described the overall secrecy surrounding the FBI testing as a form of “subterfuge.” 
 
 “I think there was just a level of secrecy by our foundation, helped by at that point a member of our staff, to do that DNA testing that just seemed … very, very strange to me,” Lowe told WBEZ. Old hat — but maybe not Lincoln’s old hat 
 
 The purported-but-maybe-not hat once owned (possibly) by Abraham Lincoln is shown at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum back in 2012, when the Chicago Sun-Times first raised questions about its lineage. In 2007, prior to the foundation’s purchase of the hat and other artifacts from Taper, an appraiser acknowledged he did not investigate the provenance of the hat. (Those stories were by Dave McKinney, who also wrote the latest report for WBEZ.)
– It could be a $6.5 million hat—but it might also not be. WBEZ reports that the crown jewel of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum's collection, Lincoln's stovepipe hat, one of just three thought to still exist, may not have belonged to the 16th president after all. Two reports obtained by the station found insufficient evidence to tie it to Lincoln. One was a 2013 report penned by top curators with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and Chicago History Museum who sought to establish its historical provenance: The Springfield, Ill., museum had maintained that Lincoln gave the hat to an Illinois farmer in 1858, though a century later a descendant said the hat was given in 1861 during a visit to DC. The report found "the current documentation is insufficient" to support either story and suggested the museum "soften its claims" or even try to return the hat. It was acquired in 2007 as part of a mammoth $25 million purchase of Lincoln items by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, which runs separately from the museum. The foundation in 2014 asked the FBI to see if DNA analysis could establish a tie to Lincoln. It relied on DNA from Lincoln's hair and blood-spattered items from his assassination but found a "limited quantity of remaining DNA data" in the hat; most of what it recovered "was consistent with being contemporary DNA from an individual who had recently handled the item." The story gets thornier: Alan Lowe—the museum's executive director since July 2016, per the Chicago Sun-Times—only recently learned about the reports, a timeline that he called "unacceptable" in a letter to the foundation. The foundation itself is mired in financial troubles tied to its 2007 buy, which currently has it $9.7 million in debt.