Original Emancipation Proclamation on display Nevada Day weekend
Submitted by Danielle Cook on Sun, 10/26/2014 - 5:04am
The Emancipation Proclamation, the historical document freeing slaves in eleven Confederate states in 1863, will be available for limited viewing at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, Thursday, Oct. 30 through Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014.
The Emancipation Proclamation is on loan from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and is part of the sesquicentennial exhibit, "The 36th State: Nevadas Journey from Territory to State," filled with documents and artifacts from the earliest history of the state. Treasures include pages from the original Nevada State Constitution, on loan from the Nevada State Library and Archives, the 175 page telegram sent to President Abraham Lincoln containing the entire Nevada State Constitution, the longest and most costly telegram at the time, flags depicting 36 stars, and historical photographs taken by Timothy O'Sullivan, some of which have never been shown in Nevada before.
The original Emancipation Proclamation will be shown at the Museum located at 160 W. Liberty St. in Reno inside the Donald W. Reynolds Center for the Visual Arts, E.L. Wiegand Gallery Thursday, 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. and Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.; timed tickets are available on a first come, first serve basis, although museum members will receive a fast pass ticket to bypass the line.
Issued New Year's Day, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was considered a "necessary war measure" by President Lincoln. He had given the Confederate states 100 days to end their rebellion, when none did, freeing the slaves became as much as an explicit goal of the war as keeping our young nation together. Escaped slaves held by Union troops as "contraband" were freed that night at midnight, and over the course of the war nearly 200 thousand "freed men" joined the Union military. Seventy-five percent of the four million slaves were declared free with the Proclamation, and thousands were liberated daily as the Union forces advanced.
General Guiseppe Garabaldi of Italy wrote Lincoln later that year, telling him "Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure."
The final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, penned by Lincoln himself, was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The five-page document on display was written by a legal copyist, and signed by President Lincoln shortly after 3 p.m. Jan. 1, 1863 after the White House's New Year's Day reception.
The Proclamation did not outlaw slavery, that was accomplished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment passed Jan. 31, 1865. Nevada's first Congressman, Henry G. Worthington was present for the House vote; Nevada was not yet a state when the Senate voted in April of 1864. Nevada's first Governor, Henry Blasdel, sent a letter to President Lincoln informing him of Nevada's ratification of the Amendment Feb. 16, 1865, and is also included in the Museum's exhibit.
The Nevada Museum of Art is the only accredited art museum in Nevada, and one of less than 5% of the nation's museums to be accredited by the American Association of Museums. Located in it's current building since 2003, the museum welcomes over 80 thousand visitors annually. For more information on the museum go here.
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