News Release

"Free at Last" Gilder Lehrman Exhibit

Date: May 2, 2007

Contact: Linda Rosenblum, National Park Service, [phone]

Topeka, KS--Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site will host a traveling panel exhibit created and funded by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History called "Free at Last: A History of the Abolition of Slavery in America" from May 7th through June 2nd. Students from Topeka Collegiate School will be studying the exhibition as part of their social studies classes.

"The struggle to abolish slavery by abolitionists in Kansas and across the United States is an important milestone on the road to the Civil Rights movement," said Rosenblum. "It provides important background information to our story at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site."

"Free at Last: A History of the Abolition of Slavery in America" traces the history of the movement to abolish slavery from the framing of the Constitution to its abolition during the Civil War. It illuminates shades of opinion within the ranks of the famous and ordinary, free and slave, men and women to come to see slavery as incompatible with the ideals upon which the nation was founded.

The documents and images in the exhibition are drawn from the Gilder Lehrman Collection and other archives.

In 2006, copies of five different Gilder Lehrman Institute traveling exhibits, "Frederick Douglass: from Slavery to Freedom: The Journey to New York City," "Freedom: A History of US," "Free at Last: A History of the Abolition of Slavery in America," "Looking at Lincoln: Political Cartoons from the Civil War Era," and "Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America," were sent free-of-charge to 66 sites in 28 states. Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. Increasingly national and international in scope, the Institute targets audiences ranging from students to scholars to the general public. It helps create history-centered schools and academic research centers, organizes seminars and enrichment programs for educators, partners with school districts to implement Teaching American History grants, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, and sponsors lectures by eminent historians. The Institute also funds awards including the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and George Washington Book Prizes and offers fellowships for scholars to work in history archives, including the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

The Gilder Lehrman Collection contains more than 60,000 documents detailing the political and social history of the United States. The collection's holdings include manuscript letters, diaries, maps, photographs, printed books and pamphlets ranging from 1493 through modern times. The Collection is particularly rich with materials in the Revolutionary, Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction periods. Highlights of the Collection include signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, a rare printed copy of the first draft of the Constitution, and thousands of unpublished Civil War soldiers' letters. Letters written by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and others record the issues and events of their day. The writings of such notable women as Lucy Knox, Mercy Otis Warren and Catherine Macaulay discuss a variety of military, political and social issues.

The "Free at Last" exhibit will be on display daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the site from May 7 though June 2, 2007. For more information, please contact Linda Rosenblum, Education Specialist, by phone at [phone] or by email by clicking here.