It's about time-I was busy, okay?

People like me should not make committments they don't keep. Rather than writing a bunch of stuff about why I haven't blogged lately, I'm going to just share the promotional items that I have been working on the last couple of months. The following is a news release about the national traveling exhibit that will be in our library starting next week. It's pretty awesome!!



Raymond A. Whitwer Tilden Public Library to host “Forever Free” traveling exhibition

Tilden – Why did a nation founded on ideals of freedom and equality tolerate for so long one of the harshest labor systems the world has known? A new traveling exhibition opening at the Raymond A. Whitwer Tilden Public Library on June 28, 2007 looks for answers to this question by tracing Abraham Lincoln’s gradual transformation from an antislavery moderate into “The Great Emancipator,” who freed all slaves with a revolutionary war-time proclamation in 1863. “Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” will be on display at the library until August 10.
Organized by the Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York City, in cooperation with the American Library Association (ALA), this traveling exhibition is made possible through major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, created by Congress and charged with planning the national celebration of Lincoln’s 200th birthday.
“We are pleased to have been selected as the only site in Nebraska to receive this exhibition, “said Library Director Dixie Kucera. “The Civil War and slavery are topics which must constantly be revisited in order to help 21st century Americans better understand their causes and more clearly see how their effects are still with us today. This exhibit offers our community an opportunity to learn more about how Abraham Lincoln decided upon emancipation of the slaves, even as he tried to hold together a
fragile coalition of states in order to preserve the Union. It is a revealing insight into the values, principles, and ideals that guided one of our greatest Presidents.”
Abraham Lincoln was an obscure Illinois lawyer and politician of humble origins who rose in an astonishingly short time to world renown as the leader of a young nation during one of its most troubled times. Throughout his life, Lincoln’s dedication to the ideals of freedom and equality for all people did not waver. “I want every man to have the chance—and I believe a black man is entitled to it—in which he can better his condition,” he said early in his political career.
Lincoln was also a pragmatic politician who believed that a direct attack on slavery in the South would split the Union and end America’s experiment in self-government. He steered a middle course during the early years of the Civil War but became convinced that ending slavery would help the Union militarily. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation transformed the character of the war by re-committing the nation to its founders’ vision of freedom and equality for all people.
“Forever Free” draws upon original documents in the collections of the Huntington Library and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. It was curated by John Rhodehamel, Norris Foundation Curator of American historical manuscripts at the Huntington Library.
The library is sponsoring free programs and other events for the public in connection with the exhibition. Contact: Dixie Kucera 402-368-5306 Email: dkucera@tildenlibrary.org
or visit www.tildenlibrary.org for more information.