RALEIGH – Determination, commitment and pride are among many characteristics of North Carolinians depicted in the “Freedom, Sacrifice, Memory: Civil War Sesquicentennial Photography Exhibit”. The exhibit commemorates the state’s role in the Civil War (1861-1865), a defining period in United States history.
The Franklin County Public Library will bring the exhibit to Louisburg, in partnership with Person Place, from Jan. 4-29, 2013. The exhibit will be open to the public at historic Person Place on Saturday, Jan. 12, and Saturday, Jan. 19, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.
“The Civil War occurred when photography was just becoming popular so was the first conflict to be widely recorded in this manner,” explains N.C. State Historic Sites Division Director Keith Hardison. “Battlefield images fascinated the public and acquainted them, in a dramatic way, with the horrors of war. The ‘Freedom, Sacrifice, Memory’ exhibit presents images that compare and contrast the conditions of war, then and now.”
Dozens of school groups already have reservations to see the exhibit at Person Place. The historic building on Main Street actually was standing and occupied by the Person family during the war. The setting and the images together can teach more history than can be absorbed from the written page.
Images gathered from the State Archives, the N.C. Museum of History, and State Historic Sites will illustrate valiant members of the Confederacy, African Americans fighting for freedom, and daring women dedicated to their homes. A total of 24 images will be exhibited by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources in 50 libraries throughout the state from April 2011 to spring 2013. A notebook will accompany the exhibit with further information and seeking viewer comments.
One of the images, Amy Harper, is of a woman whose family farm in Johnston County was taken over by the Union Army after the Battle of Bentonville. Her house was converted into a field hospital as she, her husband and children were living there. The war literally came to her front door.
For information on the Franklin County exhibit, call (919) 496-2111. For information on the tour, call (919) 807-7389.