Washington collection featured in library exhibit

A Cornell University Library exhibit marks the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence with a display of historical materials connected to the nation's first president.

In the rotunda of Kroch Library, "America at 250: Focus on George Washington" provides glimpses of Washington's life through manuscripts, political ephemera and the publications of his time - from his early drawings as a land surveyor and his executive orders during the Revolutionary War, to his farewell address to the American people and his correspondences as a plantation owner in Mount Vernon, Virginia, after his presidency.

"The exhibition provides an opportunity to honor the country's 250th by sharing insight about a figure who has legendary status as a Founding Father," said exhibit co-curator Evan Earle '02, M.S. '14, the Dr. Peter J. Thaler '56 Cornell University Archivist. "The richness of the library's Washington holdings provided easy connections to important aspects of his life and the formation of the United States."

"America at 250" draws from the library's Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC), predominantly from the acquisitions of Cornell's first president, A. D. White, who is described in the exhibition notes as a visionary who recognized the value of archival records and written testimonies in studying history.

"I am coming more and more to the conclusion that lectures on history must be largely biographical, and that ideas must be incarnate," White wrote in a letter in 1881 to Moses Coit Tyler, whom he appointed at Cornell as the nation's first chair in American history.

"In a sense, with this exhibition, we are walking in the footsteps of Cornell's founding fathers," said exhibit co-curator Laurent Ferri, curator of the pre-1800 collections at RMC.

"America at 250" runs through January 2027. Kroch Library hours are found on its website.

Jose Beduya is staff writer and editor for Cornell University Library.