UHartford Exhibitions Offer An Opportunity To Humanize History

By Shannon Hicks

“American Originals” is an important exhibition, regardless of a visitor’s age.

It is inspiring, important, relevant to a country in crisis, politically infused, and very enjoyable.

“American Originals: Treasures from The National Archives” is one of three exhibitions that opened simultaneously on February 6 at The Museum of American Political Life at the University of Hartford. The Emancipation Proclamation, pages from The Louisiana Purchase Treaty and The Civil Rights Act of 1964 are three of a few dozen original documents on display in the exhibition.

The collection is on view until May 16.

The University of Hartford marks the final stop of a three-year tour and is the only location in New England where visitors can see this collection. Because of the fragile nature of the documents, the Hartford stop also marks the last time many of these original pieces will be on view to the public for a few years.

As documents age and become more fragile, a general rule for The National Archives — the organization that preserves and makes available to the public the records of the United States government that have permanent value — is that for every 12 months a document is on view, it could be as many as ten years before it will be shown publicly again. Light is an enemy to ephemera, so when National Archives documents are presented, they are within specially designed cabinets and under low lights.

“That’s a very blanket statement,” cautioned Stacey Bredhoff, the curator of “American Originals” and a curator on the exhibits staff of the National Archives since 1985. “There is a lot of variation, but the idea is it isn’t a good idea for a document to be exposed to prolonged light.”

Ms Bredhoff offered a walk-through of the exhibition on February 5.

“This is only a tiny sampling of our holdings,” she said. “This exhibition is really a celebration of original documents.

“People have told me they’ve been overwhelmed and overcome when they get to see these documents. I think this may be because they give you a feeling of what was happening at the time these were each written. They bring back the joy, panic, confusion, and uncertainly of the time they were written,” she added. “These documents also reminds us that each of these people were real, they were human. They had passion, and that’s what is seen in their writings.”

Among the amazing items on view is the order to arrest Wyatt Earp for “larceny in the Indian Country,” dated June 8, 1871, and pages from John Wayne’s application for employment with the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, dated August 2, 1943.

Within the application Wayne’s list of sports and hobbies which interest him and his degree of proficiency in each includes a notation of “squash and tennis, fair; deep-sea fishing, 7 marlin in two years; hunting, good field shot; horseback riding, have done falls and posse riding in pictures, not as easy as it looks.”

(Wayne never did receive a commission with the OSS during World War II.)

Many of the showcases include reprinted photographs or paintings related to the featured artifact. George Washington’s statement accepting the commission as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, dated June 16, 1775, is accompanied by a reproduction portrait of Washington originally done by Charles Wilson Peale in 1780.

The exhibition includes the order to arrest Susan B. Anthony for the offense of voting in the election of 1872 “without having a lawful right so to do,” based on her gender; a letter from Leon Trotsky, commissar of foreign affairs of the newly formed Soviet government, to US Ambassador David Francis, November 21, 1917, represents the first known letter from the Society government to the US government; and a letter from Harry S. Truman to wife Bess Wallace Truman, of June 12, 1945, in which he speaks of ghosts within The White House.

“It’s just a gem,” Ms Bredhoff said of the Truman letter. “We know him so much for his public work, the decisions that impacted public policy, but this shows his wit, humor, and solitude. This is what documents can tell us about people. They humanize them.”

An official printing of John F. Kennedy’s 1961 Inaugural Address is included, along with Kennedy’s handwritten draft of the address. Kennedy’s notes are, fortunately (as are most documents), accompanied by a transcription.

“People delight in the fact JFK had such terrible handwriting,” commented curator Stacey Bredhoff. “It really humanizes him.”

“That monumental address,” she pointed out, “began really as just some scrawled out thoughts on these pages.”

Connecticut-related highlights include documents related to the Amistad Incident. There is a statement of Bahoo, a native African, to the US Circuit Court of Hartford, dated September 29, 1839, in which he testified that two of the girls being held in prison with the Amistad Africans were native Africans who had traveled to Cuba on the same slave vessel as he. The document was written by a scribe and is signed with Bahoo’s X.

The statement is accompanied by the written opinion of the Supreme Court in United States vs The Amistad, March 9, 1841, in which the court ruled the Africans onboard Amistad were free individuals. There is also a reproduction of Hale Woodruff’s painting “The Mutiny on The Amistad.”

In the adjoining showcase are pages from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s deposition, from the case Stowe vs Thomas, March 11, 1853. Stowe was suing to defend her copyright of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This is one showcase where a facsimile accompanies an original document, which is done in a few cases so that visitors can view the front and reverse of a document while it’s shown in one case.

When President Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, he said, “I never in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper.”

One of the showcases offers a look at selected pages from the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, dated September 22, 1862, along with a recent print of a Matthew Brady photograph of the President. The document on view was the second draft President Lincoln read to his Cabinet, and it was in this order that he announced emancipation would become effective January 1, 1863, “on those states in rebellion that had not meanwhile laid down their arms.”

“This document is a milestone in its own right,” said Ms Bredhoff, who pointed out that the draft version does carry the signature of the President.

The proclamation, of course, was the Executive Order abolishing slavery in the Confederate States of America. Imagine the parties that must have been held in some parts of the country to celebrate the new year that year.

While the draft version of the Emancipation Proclamation is on view for the full duration of the Hartford presentation, the public will have the opportunity to view pages from The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, the formal and definite article that freed slaves on January 1, 1863, next month.

The Emancipation Proclamation will be on display Thursday, March 25, through Sunday, March 28. The National Archives only permits the document to be viewed for a limited time due to its fragility.

“This is always a popular document,” Ms Bredhoff said. “It was subjected to much exhibition before we knew about proper showing and storage procedures.”

Connecticut Originals

Also on view is “Connecticut Originals,” offering about 80 items representing ideas, personalities, and inventions Connecticut introduced to the world.

There is memorabilia from the campaign of former Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso; a selection of Timex wristwatches, including the first Mickey Mouse watch; and an array of Pez dispensers.

Naugahyde, a Norden bomb sight, a monkey wrench, a salute to Prudence Crandall and another to ESPN, and Page One of The Connecticut Courant dated Saturday, March 27, 1841, with the headline “The Amistad Case” are also included.

A Hitchcock chair, Pope’s Columbia Bicycle, an Eli Terry Clock prototype, an Allen wrench, Katharine Hepburn’s Oscar for Best Actress (Morning Glory), a copy of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin Patent Model are all presented.

A major work of art dominates one wall of the “Connecticut Originals” gallery space. An eight-panel mural by the Bloomfield artist Michael Borders, the oil on canvas, called ‘Connecticut Industry,” took Mr Borders 25 years to complete. It depicts Connecticut’s 350-year-old record of industrial history.

Each panel represents the heritage of one of the state’s counties and each measures ten feet high by four feet wide.

In his imagery and accompanying text Mr Borders presents the geography, people, and inventions that are Connecticut’s industrial legacy. His hope, says Mr Borders, was to create a touring work of art that would “entertain, inform, and stimulate.”

The full presentation — “American Originals” and “Connecticut Originals” — offers a walk through history, a look at decisions and creations that continue to affect today’s society whether developed hundreds of years or just a few decades ago. “Connecticut Originals” brings home many inventions and people who have lived within the Nutmeg State, while the National Archives offerings bring to life decisions that can only be given a few lines in many history books.

“These documents,” said curator Stacey Bredhoff, “bring us back to the moments before we knew the outcome, before we knew things would be OK.”

Admission to the museum is free. Visiting hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Call 860-768-4090 for details including directions to the museum.

Special hours for the public display of The Emancipation Proclamation will be 9 am to 4 pm on March 25 and 28, and 9 am to 8 pm on March 26 and 27.