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Voices of the Civil War: Evidence and Artifacts

“Our Country, our country — who would have ever of thought — that we would have seen such times.” (Letter from Gavin Drummond Hunt to Mary D. Craig, May 9, 1861)

The L. Tom Perry Special Collections of the Harold B. Lee Library is installing a new exhibition titled Voices of the Civil War: Evidence and Artifacts. The exhibition features highlights from the library’s collection of Civil War materials.

Visitors to the exhibition will be able to read letters from families divided by the war, see photographs of the people who fought the war, and get an up-close look at artifacts from the era including bullets, coins, and even a cannonball. They will learn how residents of Utah followed the war through the Deseret News in 1861. They’ll see an original copy of Louisa May Alcott’s Hospital Sketches, and they’ll discover the music of the era through samples of sheet music.

The exhibit will also highlight will also the enduring legacy of the Civil War through the eyes of Hollywood with artifacts from Gone with the Wind and even the confederate battle flag used in the film, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Voices of the Civil War will open for Education Week, August 13, 2012 and run through winter semester of 2013. The exhibition is located on level 1 of the Harold B. Lee Library in the center of Brigham Young University’s campus. The exhibition will be open during regular hours for Special Collections. The public is welcome and admission is free.