Promise of Freedom: The Emancipation Proclamation

Fairfield (Connecticut) Museum and History Center will hold  a unique  and groundbreaking exhibition – Promise of Freedom: The Emancipation Proclamation -- from September 23, 2012 through February 24, 2013.  The exhibition, the only one of its kind in New England and which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the official signing of the Proclamation  will showcase  a Lincoln-signed copy,  as well as an equally valuable Lincoln-signed copy of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

This nationally-significant exhibition, made possible through grants from the Connecticut Humanities Council, Fairfield County Community Foundation, Fairfield University, People’s United Bank, JP Morgan and  Newman’s Own will also feature other fascinating documents, paintings and artifacts that narrate this decisive moment in the quest for human freedom.   In addition, iconic photographs from the modern civil rights movement will show how the struggle for equality continued for more than 100 years after emancipation.  The overall focus will be on the history of slavery, and how Lincoln’s declaration that “all persons held as slaves…shall be, then, thenceforward, and forever free,” started the long  journey towards emancipation that eventually freed more than 4 million Americans from bondage.

Visitors will be able to explore America’s quest for freedom through an important series of educational  programs commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Proclamation.  The programs will examine contemporary scholarship on the subject of slavery and freedom from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement forward to the present day.

For more information, visit www.fairfieldhistory.org or call 203-259-1598