Two hundred years after his birth, Abraham Lincoln’s historical importance endures. . . . A man for all times, Lincoln has become a global figure. People around the world take inspiration from the principles, words, and resolute leadership of the sixteenth President of the United States.
For more than 225 years the principle of freedom and our understanding of its implications have evolved dramatically. The selections from this exhibition invite you to read the words and see the images of the men and women who forged this nation. Their words and images provide insights into the complexity of the past. James G. Basker, the president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, guides viewers through this exploration of the evolution of liberty in the United States.
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On October 16, 1859, John Brown and a band of followers, black and white, attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The raid was part of a larger plan to destroy the slave system by freeing and arming slaves. The raiders were captured and John Brown was executed on December 2, 1859. The unique documents discussed here examine John Brown’s beliefs and actions in the context of growing national divisions over slavery in the 1850s.
World War II posters helped to mobilize a nation. Inexpensive, accessible and ever-present, the poster was an ideal agent for making war aims the personal mission of every citizen. Click here to launch this online exhibition.
When Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1852, it ignited a great debate over the practice of slavery in America. A best seller that sold more than one million copies, the novel tells the stories of Tom, a field slave, and Eliza, a household servant, and how they dealt with the horrors of slavery....
After the Civil War, the United States government commissioned several surveys of the American West. Photography was widely used to document the region's unusual geography, and it was this visual evidence that spurred Congress to create the national park system.
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All images are from the Gilder Lehrman Collection
![Novi Belgi Novaeque Angliae [New Netherland and New England], 1682.](http://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/aggregate-208x148/content-images/03582.jpg "Novi Belgi Novaeque Angliae [New Netherland and New England], 1682 (Gilder Lehrman Collection)")