Events

The original 13th Amendment document will be placed on public display on the following dates: Monday, February 9 through Friday, February 13, and Monday, February 16. For the remainder of the exhibition a facsimile copy will be on display.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, March 17, 5:00 p.m.
Kroch Library, Room 2B48

Lecture: "Lincoln, Slavery, and the End of the Civil War: 150 Years Later." Visiting Professor Douglas Egerton (Le Moyne College). Co-sponsored by the Cornell University Library and the Cornell University Department of History.

Saturday, April 11, 2015 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Kroch Library, Hirshland Gallery, Level 2B

Abraham Lincoln and Cornell – A One-Day Open House

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, the Cornell University Library will place all three of its unique Abraham Lincoln documents -- a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln, a copy of the Gettysburg Address written in Lincoln’s hand, and a commemorative copy of the 13th Amendment signed by Lincoln and the members of Congress who voted to end slavery in America -- on public display for a special one day flash exhibition. Also on display will be our two current exhibitions, “Lincoln’s Unfinished Work” and “150 Ways to Say Cornell.”

“The month of April 1865 was quite a month,” Cornell professor and University Historian Morris Bishop observed in his Centennial Charter Day Convocation Address. He noted, “On the third, Richmond, the Confederate capital, fell to Grant. On the ninth, Lee surrendered at Appomattox. On the fourteenth, President Lincoln was assassinated. On the twenty-seventh…Governor Reuben E. Fenton, in the gas-lit elegance of his chambers in the old Albany Capitol, signed the bill that constitutes the Charter of Cornell University.”

Past Events

Saturday, January 31, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m
Tompkins County Public Library

Screening of the Stephen Spielberg film, Lincoln. Hosted by Cornell librarians, Eric Acree, Director of the Africana Library, and Lance Heidig, Outreach and Learning Services Librarian and exhibition curator in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.Co-sponsored by TCLP and the Tompkins County Civil War Commemorative Commission.

Wednesday, February 4, 4:30 p.m.
Africana Studies and Research Center Multipurpose Room

Lecture: "The Lincolnian Constitution and Its Discontents." Associate Professor Aziz Rana (Cornell University Law School). Sponsored by the Africana Studies and Research Center.

Friday, February 13, 10:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Africana Studies and Research Center Multipurpose Room

Panel discussion: "Strange Bedfellows?: Abolitionism and White Supremacy" - Louis Agassiz, Ezra Cornell, and A.D. White."

This event began as an inquiry into the social context that would lead to a plaque being dedicated in Cornell"s Sage Chapel to Louis Agassiz, the Swiss-born professor of geology and zoology at Harvard who advocated polygenism (the argument that races were separately created) over Darwin"s theory of evolution. This panel of freshman researchers will reveal their findings about how Agassiz's creationism led to his embracing the thinking of mid-19th century Americans who established theories of "scientific racism."

Speakers:

Co-Sponsored by Africana Studies & Research Center, Department of History, The John S. Knight Institute, and American Studies

Wednesday, February 18, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m
Tompkins County Public Library

Lecture: "Hiving of the Bees: Frederick Douglass and John Brown." Professor Hugh Egan (Ithaca College). Co-sponsored by TCLP and the Tompkins County Civil War Commemorative Commission.

Gallery Information

Lincoln’s Unfinished Work will be on view January 20 through September 30, 2015, in the Carl A. Kroch Library rotunda.

Carl A. Kroch Library Hours

Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm

Open Saturdays, 1:00pm - 5:00pm: March 7, 14, 21, April 11, 18, 25 & May 2

The Carl A. Kroch Library is located on the Cornell University campus (campus map). Access is through Olin Library. More information for visitors is available here.