Underground Railroad Exhibit Will Be Displayed at Visitor Center

Date: January 18, 2011
Contact: Bonnie Blaford, [phone]

WEST BRANCH, IOWA— Before the Civil War, men, women, and children seeking to escape slavery in the South often sought refuge among Northern abolitionists in Cedar County, Iowa. "Cedar County, Iowa: A Door to Freedom", an exhibit on the Underground Railroad, will be displayed at the Visitor Center of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site from January 24 through the end of April. The exhibit was produced by a partnership of the National Park Service and the University of Iowa Museum Studies Program.

"Cedar County, Iowa: A Door to Freedom" replaces the temporary exhibit by Iowa artist Diane Blair Kunzler. Children visiting the exhibit can become Junior Rangers and earn Junior Ranger badges by completing the Underground Railroad Junior Ranger activity booklet. The Visitor Center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Wherever slavery existed, there were efforts to escape. The Underground Railroad—the resistance to enslavement by escape and flight, through the end of the Civil War—refers to the efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom. The National Park Service commemorates and preserves this history through the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program (www.cr.nps.gov/ugrr).

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum are in West Branch, Iowa at exit 254 off I-80. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time.