Cal U. to host Lincoln exhibit
California University of Pennsylvania will host a traveling exhibition Thursday through Oct. 16 about President Abraham Lincoln and the constitutional struggles he faced during the Civil War.
“Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War” is being presented by the university’s Department of History and Political Science and the Louis L. Manderino Library. It will be on display on the first floor of the library.
The National Constitution Center and the American Library Association Public Programs Office organized the exhibition with a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The traveling display is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the National Constitution Center.
The library will hold two special events in conjunction with the exhibition:
• Thursday – 6 p.m. reception, followed at 7 by a presentation, “April 1865,” by Connellsville resident Ken Williams. A former ranger with the National Park Service in Gettysburg, Williams is a Civil War re-enactor, a frequent speaker on Civil War topics and a guide at Fallingwater in Bear Run.
• Sept. 28 – 6 p.m. reception, followed at 7 by “Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Constitution,” a talk by military historian Dr. Jared Peatman. Peatman’s award-winning monograph, “The Long Shadow of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” was published in 2013. He is also the co-author, along with Steven B. Wiley, of “A Transformational Journey: Leadership Lessons from Gettysburg.”
“The current presidential candidates, and people across society, are grappling with and debating constitutional issues,” said Bill Meloy, research and electronic collections librarian at Cal. “This will give people a chance to step back and ponder the decisions Lincoln made regarding civil liberties in a time of war, when the enemy was right round the corner.”
The exhibition, receptions and lectures are free. For more information about the exhibition, including a brochure and information for teachers, visit http://library.calu.edu/Lincoln.
Manderino Library is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays; and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays. Visitor parking is available in the Vulcan Garage, off Third Street near the campus entrance.