The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a grant to Norwalk Community College to host a traveling exhibition on “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” in 2012.
Beginning this summer, the exhibition will tour 25 libraries nationwide over a four-year period through August 2013. Norwalk Community College will host the exhibition in the college’s Everett I.L. Baker Library from Oct. 31 – Dec. 14, 2012.
“Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” is a collaboration between the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Constitution Center and the American Library Association. The exhibition is based upon an original National Constitution Center-developed interactive exhibition of the same name, which has been reformatted into a touring exhibition for public and college/university libraries.
“Norwalk Community College is delighted to have been chosen a site for this major historical exhibit,” said NCC President David L. Levinson, Ph.D. “President Lincoln has been the focus of several campus programs this year, including an Honors Program seminar on ‘The Lincoln Years’ and a Lincoln Bicentennial Lecture on the ‘Moral and Political Genius of Lincoln’ by Professor Andrew Delbanco, Columbia University Director of American Studies.”
The NEH grant provides $2,500 for exhibition-related expenses and programming. NCC is the only New England college to have been awarded this grant.
NCC History Professor Steven Berizzi notes that as part of the exhibition programming, NCC will present talks by nationally renowned Abraham Lincoln and Civil War scholars:
• Michael Burlingame, The University of Illinois at Springfield
• Andrew Delbanco, Columbia University
• Harold Holzer, U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
• Manisha Sinha, The University of Massachusetts at Amherst
• Ronald Spencer, Trinity College
Exhibition Highlights:
“Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” has been designated a National Endowment for the Humanities “We the People” program, exploring significant events and themes in our nation’s history and culture and advancing knowledge of the principles that define America.
Using the U.S. Constitution as a cohesive thread, “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” offers a fresh perspective on Lincoln that focuses on his struggle to meet the political and constitutional challenges of the Civil War. Organized thematically, the exhibition explores how Lincoln used the Constitution to confront three intertwined crises of the war—the secession of Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties.
According to NEH program materials, while Lincoln is widely acknowledged as one of America’s greatest presidents, his historical reputation is contested. This exhibition introduces visitors to a Lincoln they may not know: a controversial president denounced in his own time as a “tyrant” for his policies on emancipation and civil liberties, and a historical figure who still stirs debate. The exhibition urges viewers to consider whether Lincoln was “a calculating politician willing to accommodate slavery or a principled leader justly celebrated as the Great Emancipator.”
The exhibition includes reproductions of significant documents signed by Lincoln, including the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Order to Blockade the Southern Ports ---the official start of the Civil War. On view will reproductions of Lincoln’s personal artifacts, including his signature top hat and the pen used to sign the Emancipation Proclamation
