Liberty on the Border: A Civil War Exhibit

January 28, 2012 to May 6, 2012

Focusing on the relationship between border states during the Civil War, Liberty on the Border provides new insights into the events leading up to the war, the war years, and the “politics of memory” that has occurred from post-war to modern day. Border regions were not just physical borders between neighboring states, but also represented a dividing line between North and South, “free” and “slave.” The exhibit looks at the Civil War in a new way, allowing visitors to explore not only the very real physical border that separated slave states from the free states, but also the wide spectrum of attitudes of people in those areas.

Included are numerous artifacts, archival documents, broadsides, ephemera, lithographs, and photographs. Reproductions of certain artifacts provide a multi-sensory experience: try on a soldier’s jacket, feel the weight of his pack, and inspect merchandise at the Sanitary Fair. A strong focus on non-military events and civilian contributions puts the causes, effects, and meaning of the war in more personal terms.

A traveling exhibit organized by the Cincinnati Museum Center

 

Click here for the Educator's Guide to the exhibit.

Click here for a video highlighting the installation of the exhibit at the Charlotte Museum of History.

 

         

 

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