Lincoln Exhibit and National Speakers to arrive in Prince Frederick soon! (press release and photo)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact:  Robyn Truslow

410-535-0291

 

“Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” a national traveling exhibition which focuses on Abraham Lincoln’s struggle to meet the constitutional challenges of the Civil War, opens at the Calvert Library Prince Frederick on July 12, 2012 and will be available for viewing until August 24, 2012.

Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth President of the United States in 1860, at a time when the nation was falling apart. By the time he took the oath of office, seven states had already seceded from the Union. The exhibition vividly evokes Lincoln’s struggle to resolve the basic questions that divided Americans at the most perilous moment in the nation’s history: Was the United States truly one nation, or was it a confederacy of sovereign and separate states? How could a country founded on the belief that “all men are created equal” tolerate slavery? In a national crisis, would civil liberties be secure?

            The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the exhibit with the help of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): Great Ideas Brought to Life. The traveling exhibition is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

            Calvert Library is offering free lectures and other events for the public in connection with the exhibition.  These include docent-led tours, living history re-enactors, lectures from nationally-known Lincoln experts, children’s events, Civil War genealogy workshop led by National Archives genealogy specialist, film screening and discussion and more.  Some of the experts who will be speaking include Michael Kauffman, authority on John Wilkes Booth and author of American Brutus; Bradley Gottfried, avid historian who has published seven books on the Civil War and is particularly renowned for his battlefield maps; Harold Holzer, one of the country’s leading authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the politics engulfing the Civil War era; Craig Symonds, author and expert on Naval and Civil War History; Justice Frank Williams, author and premier collector of Lincoln memorabilia. 

Re-enactors include members of the Federal City Brass Band performing historical music with authentic instruments and in historically accurate uniforms; Jim Getty as Abraham Lincoln; Bill Grimmette as Frederick Douglass; Mary Ann Jung as Clara Barton and members of the Orphan Brigade, Camp 2166, Sons of Confederate Veterans.  Expect to participate in hands-on demonstrations of daily life for Confederate soldiers, try your hand at creating period crafts, playing Civil War-era games, and more.  A complete schedule of events can be found at  http://calvert.lib.md.us/Lincoln.html.  Or for more details, please call Robyn Truslow at 410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862.  

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Photo of Orphan Brigade, Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #2166

 

 

Robyn Truslow

Public Relations Coordinator

Calvert Library

850 Costley Way

Prince Frederick, MD  20678

phone:  410-535-0291 or 301-855-1862

fax:  410-535-3022

rtruslow@somd.lib.md.us