On February 11, 2009, Farmington premiered its new permanent exhibit: Lincoln & Farmington: An Enduring Friendship, with guest of honor, noted Lincoln scholar and author Harold Holzer. Noted attendees included Congressman John Yarmuth, Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson, Judge Executive Tommy Turner, Mary Lou Marzian, and Lindy Casebier. Nearly 400 people attended the opening.

Photo by Norvelle Wathen	Photo by Norvelle Wathen

The exhibit was curated by Historian Kathy Nichols, and designed by Solid Light.

Phase I: Lincoln and Farmington: An Enduring Friendship, presents the Kentucky hemp plantation as experienced by the young, Illinois attorney during his three-week visit in 1841. As a guest of the Speed family at Farmington, Abraham Lincoln participated in the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by Southern planters and experienced, first hand, the complex and intimate interracial relationships within the plantation community. It examines the importance of the relationships the future president formed while in Jefferson County and the effect of those relationships on Lincoln, the Speed family, Kentucky, and the nation during the Civil War. The exhibit highlights the significance of Lincoln's "most intimate friend", Joshua Speed, who, along with his brother, future Attorney General James Speed, worked to keep Kentucky in the Union and advised the President n issues dividing the nation, including the Emancipation Proclamation.

Phase II of the exhibit plan will take place in two outbuildings at Farmington: the reproduction detached kitchen and the Blacksmith Shop. The summer kitchen exhibits will focus on the lives and roles of enslaved African-American women. The Blacksmith Shop will interpret enslaved men's roles as they pertained to hemp agriculture.

Phase III will continue in Farmington's museum house (1815-1816) where a detailed analysis of the Speed family members and their interaction with Lincoln will take place.

Phase II and Phase III opening dates are to be determined.