“Lincoln Lives in Lawrence’s Library,” said the poster — announcing
the exhibit “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation,” on
display in the Seeley G. Mudd Library from January 21 to March 5.
Displayed on two 75-foot-long sectioned panels, the
exhibition featured reproductions
of rare historical documents, period photographs, and illustrative material
including engravings, lithographs, cartoons, and miscellaneous political items.
Organized by the Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., and the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History, New York City, in cooperation with the American
Library Association Public Programs Office, the exhibition was made possible
by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. While on tour,
it was seen in 39 public and academic libraries nationwide, with Lawrence its
only Wisconsin stop.
"Hosting this exhibit and providing accompanying programming was an unqualified
success,” says Susan Richards, associate professor and library director. “We
had close to 1,000 community persons visit the exhibit during its six-week
stay — at
a minimum, two to five people came in every day of the week. We had home schoolers,
an entire eighth grade, students from
UW-Oshkosh, and men and women from a retirement community, to name a few. Individuals
traveled from as far away as Kenosha and La Crosse to view the exhibit.”
In addition, the library sponsored three related
lectures, of which Professor
Jerald Podair’s talk, excerpted here, was one, along with an opening
address by historian and author Ronald C. White, Jr., professor of American
intellectual
and religious history at the San Francisco Theological
Seminary, speaking on Lincoln’s second inaugural address, and a lecture
by Assistant Professor of English Faith Barrett on “Drums Off the Phantom
Battlement: American Poets and the Civil War.”
To complete its Lincoln offerings, the Lawrence library enlisted the aid of the Appleton Public Library, which publicized the exhibition, created its own Lincoln and Civil War displays, and hosted a series of book discussions and lectures by Lawrence faculty members.
“I am sure that Appleton Public Library’s participation gave community
members a sense that the exhibit was for their edification and enjoyment, as
much as it was a campus resource — which, no doubt,
increased community attendance at the exhibit and events,” Richards
says.
“ Forever Free” moved on after its six-week Appleton stay, but other
significant materials on Lincoln and his era are available at Mudd Library
for campus and
community use. The Lincoln Reading
Room is a permanent fixture on the first floor of
the library, housing collections donated by Robert S. French, ’48 (more
than 1,500 items, with an emphasis on Lincoln), and L. Keville Larson, ’20
(some 400 items dealing with the Civil War more generally), among others.