Events & Classes > Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation
Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation
Location, time
- Collins Gallery
- 3rd Floor, Central Library
- 801 S.W. 10th Avenue
- Portland, OR
- November 10–December 21, 2006
- Monday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
- Tuesday & Wednesday: 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
- Thursday–Saturday: 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
- Sunday: noon–5 p.m.
About the exhibit
At the center of the American Civil War looms the tragic figure of Abraham Lincoln. Although Americans might agree that President Lincoln saved the Union, his role in the final destruction of slavery and the nature of his views on racial equality have always attracted controversy. Was Lincoln really the "Great Emancipator" whom generations of Americans have been taught to revere? Or did Lincoln reluctantly embrace emancipation only after the actions of abolitionists in the North and enslaved African Americans in the South left him no other choice? Was Lincoln's "paramount object" saving the Union or freeing the enslaved? Why did emancipation become a Union war aim only in 1862, and how did that momentous shift in policy influence the outcome of the conflict?
Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation addresses these questions and, in seeking to understand the subtleties of Lincoln's complex political strategy, illuminates the nature of successful presidential leadership in times of national crisis. Using reproductions of some 60 rare historical documents and drawing on the latest scholarship, the exhibit encourages audiences to reexamine Lincoln's role in the destruction of slavery during the Civil War.
Also on display will be selected volumes of Abraham Lincoln, a history; Extra-Illustrated Edition (1890) by John G. Nicolay and John Hay, from the library's own John Wilson Special Collections. This rare 20-volume biography features woodcuts, engravings, lithographs and photos; two portraits of Lincoln from Brady negatives; a campaign ribbon; a Confederate bond with coupons attached; and an example of Confederate currency. Also included are a number of autographs and handwritten documents, many of them extremely rare, including several by Lincoln himself and others by abolitionist John Brown, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.