Booth Library will be the next home to “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War”, a national traveling exhibit.

The exhibit will be on display at the library starting Sept 4 all the way to Oct 16.

According to the press release, the exhibition will explore Lincoln’s use of the Constitution during three crises of the Civil war. These crises included the secession of the southern states, slavery, and wartime civil liberties.

The exhibition will show a better understanding of Lincoln’s presidency how the Civil War was the nation’s gravest crisis at the time.

According to the press release, besides the national exhibit, there will also be related displays of different subjects and aspects of the time, including Lincoln’s connection to Coles County.

Steve Brantley, the head of reference services, said the library is hosting the travelling exhibit because it gives them a chance to show the campus community the wealth of knowledge the library has.

“It also gives us an opportunity to engage with the students and faculty in topics that they have a wealth of expertise on as well,” Brantley said. “We use the library as a space, its a beautiful place and proves a great opportunity to put up exhibits that are important and it helps us to fulfill our educational mission to the university.”

Brantley said the library receives a large exhibition to showcase to the students once a year.

Last year, the library showcased a 1960’s exhibit, which was larger than the current Lincoln exhibit.

“Usually, twice a year, maybe once a year, there’s a large exhibit,” Brantley said. “The 1960’s exhibit was much bigger than this current Lincoln exhibit. Usually we have a very large one and a slightly smaller one at different times a year, but they always engage the faculty in order to get professors to come in and give talks on the topic of the exhibit.”

Brad Tolppanen, the head of circulation services, said the library has these exhibits to make students aware of it while it is at the library.

“We want to use the exhibits to engage the students, to make them aware of the collection, the resource and the content of the exhibit as well,” Tolppanen said. “We’ve had a whole variety of a range of subjects. We’ve had subjects from farm life to Kente cloth to Frankenstein.”

Booth Library will also host several programs relating to the Lincolns and the Civil War.

The Lincoln exhibition stars on Sept 4 and will continue through Oct16 in the Booth Library.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]