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Date: August 12, 2009
Contact: Merrith Baughman, 402-223-3514

Homestead National Monument of America will host "Looking at Lincoln: Political Cartoons from the Civil War Era," a special exhibit sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History from Friday, August 21, through Monday, September 21, at the newly renovated Education Center. This exhibit presents political cartoons illustrating how people responded to Abraham Lincoln and his policy of Emancipation. Looking at Lincoln exhibit offers insights into how racism was a part of 19th Century American life.

The exhibition explores the Civil War and issues of slavery from the standpoint of political cartoons which appeared in newspapers and were sold individually as prints in shops on street corners and by mail. Artists and citizens who created these images lived in a century in which racism was deeply ingrained in American life. Even ardent abolitionists who fought to end slavery often took little account of its implication for race relations. At the beginning of the twenty-first century as Americans continue to debate the ramifications of slavery, these cartoons provide an historical point of reference for current events.

Homestead National Monument of America is a unit of the National Park Service located four miles west of Beatrice, Nebraska. Current hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. Winter hours between Labor Day and Memorial Day are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekends. Admission to all events, exhibits, programs, and displays is free of charge. For additional information, please call 402-223-3514 or visit www.nps.gov/home.