Rare documents, photos in 'Freedom' exhibit

By TARA BURGHART Associated Press Writer

December 21, 2002, 11:27 AM EST

NEW YORK -- It's no surprise to see an American flag at an exhibit about freedom, but it is to find one with only nine stripes and 20 stars.

In 1859, the official flag had 13 stripes representing the original 13 colonies and 33 stars standing for the states then in the Union. But the Stars and Stripes displayed in the new exhibit, "Freedom: A History of US," was made by abolitionists, who removed the stripes and stars of the slave-holding states.

The exhibit, at the New-York Historical Society, is composed of 200 documents and photographs from two private collections. Some are well-known, many have never before been shown publicly.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime exposure to American history," said Jim Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, holder of one of the collections. "There is a thrill that comes from being in the presence of the real materials, like a piece of speech notes that Lincoln carried around in his sweaty pocket. It gives you goosebumps to think about where these documents have been."

The exhibit was developed to run in conjunction with an eight-week television series on how the American concept of freedom has evolved over 200 years. It is scheduled to air nationally on PBS beginning Jan. 12.

With three themes, "The Young Republic," "A Nation Divided" and "Emancipation," the exhibit spans 90 years from the founding of the United States through the Civil War.

One item, described by Basker as "breathtaking," is a draft of the U.S. Constitution dated August 1787, positioned next to a final copy printed a month later that belonged to Benjamin Franklin. The draft begins, "We the people of the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island ..." while the final text begins, "We the People of the United States ..."

"Somewhere in between, the idea of one nation took off. Somewhere in those four weeks, you literally have the birth of the sense of a nation," Basker said. "The (founding fathers) worked themselves up to a state where they could imagine one country, instead of 13 confederated states."

Other highlights:

_A letter in which president-to-be George Washington tells a friend, "it is among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by the Legislature by which slavery in this Country may be abolished by slow, sure & imperceptible degree."

_A hand-colored engraving of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere.

_A letter from ex-slave Frederick Douglass offering affection to a former master and his family. "I love you, but hate slavery," Douglass writes.

_A Matthew Brady photograph of Gen. Robert E. Lee with a Confederate uniform hand-painted over Lee's regular clothing because Brady couldn't get wartime access to him.

_An 1864 letter from Abraham Lincoln to Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant, saying that despite heavy Union losses, "I begin to see it. You will succeed. God bless you all."

_A huge recruitment poster urging blacks to join the Union army: "Men of Color: To Arms! To Arms! Now or Never."

The documents come from the Gilder Lehrman collection; almost all photos are from the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection, which Frederick Hill Meserve began collecting in 1897 to honor his father, who fought at Antietam.

Along with generals, presidents and senators, many of the photos depict ordinary Civil War soldiers. Some are paired with heart-breaking letters to wives and mothers.

"The Civil War was the first time that grisly images of war were photographed, the first time we saw slain bodies on the field, unburied," said Philip Kunhardt, Meserve's great-grandson. "It was the first time a war was brought home to the living rooms of everyday Americans, with all its horror palpable."

The exhibit at the New-York Historical Society will run through Jan. 26, and moves to the Decatur House in Washington D.C. on Feb. 5. A traveling exhibit, featuring copies of most of the documents and photos, will tour 20 U.S. cities.

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On the Net:

New-York Historical Society: http://www.nyhistory.org/

Gilder Lehrman: http://www.gilderlehrman.org/

Meserve-Kunhardt: http://www.picturehistory.com/

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

Maggie's hottie

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-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002

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-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002