President Abe Lincoln returns to Gettysburg
Photo Courtesy of Musselman Library
Courtesy of Musselman Library
This week, our nation’s sixteenth president returned to Musselman Library as part of a national traveling exhibit entitled “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War.” The exhibit, which is comprised of five free-standing panels, examines how the President used the Constitution to confront three intertwined crises of the Civil War—the secession of Southern states, slavery, and wartime civil liberties.
The informative panels feature photographic reproductions of documents, including Lincoln’s first inaugural speech, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Thirteenth Amendment. Each section features information about a different aspect of Lincoln’s presidency. For example, the section about slavery examines the various policy options Lincoln once embraced and how his thoughts about slavery evolved over time.
To complement the exhibit, the library will also host related programs such as lectures, a dramatic reading with music, and a Civil War dance workshop. The opening reception, which takes place this Friday, Feb. 22 at 4:00 p.m. in the Library apse, will include live period music performed by Professor Larry Marschall and light refreshments. In addition to the exhibit, the library has developed some smaller exhibits related to Lincoln and the Civil War. These include work by artists Sam Fink, Mort Künstler, and Dale Gallon; Civil War artifacts and a collection of bookends depicting Lincoln.
The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the traveling exhibition, which was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.
