In conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the exhibit "Home Front to Battlefront: Celebrating the Civil War Legacy" chronicles the Civil War era and its legacy. The exhibit will be on display through Oct. 7, in 104 Paterno Library on Penn State's University Park campus.
"When the shot, fired from the rebel gun at Charleston upon Fort Sumter in that memorable spring morning in April 1861, sent a wave of indignation and anger surging throughout the length and breadth of the northern States, the little body of students within the walls of what is now called 'Old Main,' at the Farmer’s High School . . . felt the shock of that mighty wave …," from a transcription of excerpts from "John I. Thompson Civil War Reminiscences."
Drawing upon a rich array of unique primary source materials -- including family letters, diaries, photographic images, historical lithographs and broadsides, official government records -- the exhibition explores themes of slavery and abolitionism, sectionalism, the battlefield experience of the common soldier, health and medical conditions during the war, Penn State and the Civil War, and the construction of cultural memory of the epic conflict. It pays particular attention to activities in the north during this period of the United State's history, drawing from Historical Collections and Labor Archives, within The Eberly Family Special Collections Library.
Exhibit hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment. For more information, call 814-865-1793.