CU Kroch Library's abolition exhibit offers stark historical truths

By Franklin Crawford

A set of manacles once used to shackle a human being is now under glass in Cornell's Carl A. Kroch Library and is one of the more compelling nonliterary artifacts now on display in the exhibit "I Will Be Heard: Abolitionism in America."

Co-curators Petrina Jackson, left, and Katherine Reagan, third from left, take members of a Cornell Adult University class through Kroch Library's abolition exhibit, July 16. Kevin Stearns/University Photography

Of the exhibit, Wharton College President Dale Rogers Marshall, Cornell Class of '59, writes in the exhibit's visitors' book: "[It is] Important to continually educate those of us who think we are educated."

More than 1,000 people have viewed the exhibit since it opened in the Kroch Library June 5. On display through Sept. 27, "I Will Be Heard" documents the intellectual, moral and political struggle in 18th and 19th century America to achieve freedom for all Americans. Among the items featured are rare books, manuscripts, letters, photographs and other materials contained in Cornell's pre-eminent anti-slavery, slavery and Civil War collections.

Co-curated by Petrina Jackson and Katherine Reagan, Cornell Library's curator of rare books, the exhibit reveals the complex history of slavery, resistance and abolition from the 1700s through 1865. Jackson is a member of Cornell Library's postgraduate minority fellowship program, which employs library-school graduates in several library departments and functional areas.

Organizing the exhibit was a revelation for Jackson. "Both as an archivist and as a person, working on this exhibition and with these materials was more than I could imagine. The whole process of exhibit planning was a challenging, yet rewarding, balance of mixing historical relevance and visual aesthetics with clear and concise language," she said. Jackson identified objects for display, researched their origins and composed the descriptive labels.

Visitors to the exhibit have included members of the Cornell Black Alumni Association, several Cornell Summer Session classes and local school groups, including Lansing seventh-graders and Ithaca South Hill Elementary School fifth-graders. More school and community group visits are planned in the fall, once the semester starts.

"Seeing original slavery documents up close -- such as price lists for slaves being auctioned or posters advertising rewards for the return of runaway slaves -- brings the terrible reality of our shared history alive in a way that history books alone cannot do," said Reagan, managing curator of the exhibition.

And the library, Reagan said, is committed to sharing its greatest collections with as wide an audience as possible. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to view some of Cornell Library's greatest treasures, including a manuscript copy of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, a manuscript copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and a copy of the 13th Amendment, signed by Lincoln and members of Congress.

For more information about the exhibit or to arrange a tour, visit the following Web site: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/abolitionism/introduction/Collections.htm.