Contact:
Katherine Sleyko
580-559-5308
ksleyko@ecok.edu

Kaylie Blackwell
580-559-5565
kayjbla@ecok.edu

University Library to Showcase Traveling Exhibition about President Lincoln’s Struggle to Meet the Constitutional Challenges of the Civil War

ADA, OK – “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” a traveling exhibition opening at Linscheid Library on the East Central University campus on September 17, explores how President Abraham Lincoln used the Constitution to challenge three interwoven issues of the Civil War—the secession of Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties.

This ongoing event will feature an interactive exhibit about the sixteenth President of the United States as well as a series of five different lectures by local and visiting faculty. These lectures will provide people with some insight as to how Lincoln struggled to answer various questions that divided Americans during a difficult time in U.S. history: Was the United States truly a union, or was it a confederacy of sovereign and separate states? How could a nation founded on the belief that “all men are created equal” condone slavery? In a national crisis, would civil liberties be secure?

The traveling exhibition is composed of informative panels featuring photographic reproductions of original documents, including a draft of Lincoln’s first inaugural speech, the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment. The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the traveling exhibition, which was made possible by 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.

Dr. Scott Barton, Professor of History and American Studies at ECU, will open the series of lectures with an overview of Lincoln and the Constitution on September 18 at 3:30pm.

Dr. Brad Clampitt, Associate Professor and Chair of ECU’s History and American Studies department, will continue this discussion on Lincoln on September 24 with his lecture regarding Lincoln’s presidential duties during the Civil War.

On October 1 at 3:30pm, Dr. Barton will give another lecture on Lincoln and the emancipation of four million slaves. At 4:15pm the same day, assistant history professor Dr. Chris Bean of ECU will examine the connection between Lincoln and the Reconstruction era.

The final lecture in the series, on October 13 in the Estep Room in the University Center, will also double as the Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture in Representative Government. Jonathan White, American Studies Professor at Christopher Newport University, will give the about his research and his most recent book “Abraham Lincoln and Treason in the Civil War: The Trials of John Merryman”.

For more information about the traveling exhibition, visit library.ecok.edu, or contact Linscheid Library’s Outreach Department at 580-559-5308 or by e-mail at ksleyko@ecok.edu. “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” will be on display at the library until October 31.