Nevada's 150th birthday celebration this year will include a special visit to the Nevada Museum of Art by the original Emancipation Proclamation. Nevada's entry to statehood is intertwined with the Civil War, and helped the state earn the "Battle Born" nickname.
The Emancipation Proclamation was last in Nevada in 1948, visiting Reno and Elko as part of the Freedom Train. This year, the document will be a highlight of the Nevada Museum of Art's exhibit "The 36th Star: Nevada's Journey from Territory to State." The exhibit will include statehood documents and historical objects, and two collections of photographs by Timothy O'Sullivan, said Amanda Horn, director of communications at the Nevada Museum of Art.
The official Nevada State Constitution and the 1864 proclamation of Nevada's statehood are some of the documents on view as part of the exhibit. The longest telegram ever sent was a transmission of the entire text Nevada State Constitution by James Nye, Governor of the Territory of Nevada, to President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. The telegram and its accompanying transmittal letter are also on display. Horn said this telegram would cost $60,000 to send today.
One artifact, which has never been publically displayed, is the Civil War muster rolls of Nevada volunteers. Horn said the volunteers did not actually fight in the Civil War but protected the Overland Trail, and were stationed at Fort Churchill and Fort Ruby.
Timothy O'Sullivan, according to the National Archives, was a Civil War photographer, and a photographer for the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. His most famous photograph is "A Harvest of Death, Gettysburg," which depicts dead Union soldiers on the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Horn said O'Sullivan is one of three of the best known Civil War photographers, and a collection of his Civil War photographs will be on display along with some of his photographs of the survey of the 40th parallel by Clarence King. This collection of photographs documents locations on the 40th parallel which runs through Nevada, and the center of the United States.
The exhibition begins Aug. 2, and runs through Nov. 2 at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. The star of the show, the Emancipation Proclamation, will be on view from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2. The age and condition of the document limit the hours it can be viewed by the public. Viewing hours on Thursday, Oct. 30 are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 31 through Sunday, Nov. 2. Horn said the museum would probably have time-ticketed entries, and that because of the limited viewing hours, they were not expecting to have organized school tours.
For more information, visit the Nevada Museum of Art's website at nevadaart.org.
Sun Staff Writer Stephanie Morton contributed to this report.[[In-content Ad]]
