Let the Records Show: Discovering the Valley's Black Community in Slavery and Freedom
January 17, 2010 - July 11, 2010
History Gallery

In 1860, nearly 90,000 slaves, almost half the entire population of the lower Chattahoochee River Valley of Georgia and Alabama, called the region home. These people tended the crops that underpinned the area’s economy, built the structures many of its citizens lived, worked and worshipped in, and affected virtually every aspect of the social structure of the era. Yet because slaves did not generate written records of their own, our understanding of their lives is extremely limited. Many crucial details about how they dealt with life as bondsmen or how they managed the tumultuous transition to freedom are difficult, if not impossible, to find.

This exhibition attempts to shed light on some of the experiences of slaves and freedmen through an examination of several types of documentary evidence. Ranging from bills of sale and estate inventories to city ordinances and personal letters, it includes a variety of historical records that give insight into their lives through the important bits of information they contain. The materials will be supplemented by several reproduction items of the type used by slaves in daily life and a limited number of other original artifacts from the era. While these items cannot tell us every detail of the lives of the people they are associated with, they can help us gain a new understanding of them as individuals.

Related Programs:

Coffee Break: Afternoon Tour and Social for Seniors
2 p.m. Thursday, March 11
Free!

Senior citizens with an interest in art and history are encouraged to attend the Museum’s monthly Coffee Break program. This event includes a special tour led by a Museum docent of an exhibition, followed by coffee and dessert in the Wright Room. Space is limited and reservations are required (individual and group). Please call the Education Department to make your reservations at 706.748.2562, ext. 651.

6 p.m. Thursday, March 11
Special Film Feature: Horace King: The Bridge Builder
Free!

Former slave Horace King rose to become the most-respected bridge builder in west Georgia, east Alabama and northeast Mississippi from the 1830s until the 1880s. Come view this special documentary film, which covers the life span of this great African-American legend who accomplished great things during the tumultuous periods of slavery and Reconstruction.

6 p.m.Thursday, April 1
Special Film Feature: Lift Every Voice
Free!

This documentary covers the history of African Americans in Columbus, Georgia from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights movement. The film explores the cultural, social and religious institutions that helped to define the local black community in the context of legal segregation and the struggle for integrated schools.

 6 p.m.Thursday, May 27
Special Film Feature: Reconstruction: The Second Civil War
Free!

Part of the PBS series, “The American Experience,” this documentary spans the momentous years from 1863 to 1877 as it tracks the extraordinary stories of ordinary Americans -- Southern and Northern, white and black -- as they struggled to shape new lives for themselves in a world turned upside down.

Gallery Tales: Life After Emancipation
February 2, 4, 9, 18, 22, 25 and March 2, 4, 9
9:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.

Students in K-5th grades will learn through storytelling and art, as guest educator Patty Chamberlain will teach students about life after emancipation in the Chattahoochee Valley.

This exhibition is made possible by grant support provided by the Columbus Consolidated Government and the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau.

For gifts and educational items related to this exhibition, visit our Museum Shop.

Celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation,
wood engraving printed in black and rose, 1865,
Thomas Nast, published by S. Bott, Courtesy of
the Library of Congress

The Way We Lived: Residential Architecture and
Life in the 19th Century
On view through June 13, 2010
Third Floor Galleries

This exhibition examines Chattahoochee Valley homes. Ranging from a wilderness traders’ cabin to an urban mansion, these houses are among the best examples of popular styles of domestic architecture during the era. In addition to highlighting intriguing exterior details, we shed light on the reasons for the dramatic differences in their interior living spaces. More than a simple glance at changing fashion, this exhibition helps visitors better understand how trends, technology and tastes combined to make life in the past so much different today.

Related Programs:

A Regional Tour of 19th-Century Homes
Saturdays, May 8 and 22
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Cost: $15

In celebration of the exhibition The Way We Lived: Residential Architecture and Life in the 19th Century, the Museum will offer two guided tours of historic homes in LaGrange, Eufaula, Lumpkin and Columbus. See below for specific itineraries.

There will be a minimum of 40 people per tour. Reservations are required. For more information, contact Melinda Durham at 706.748.2562, ext. 651 or mdurham@columbusmuseum.com.

Saturday, May 8
9:45 a.m.
Depart Columbus Museum for LaGrange
11 a.m. -- 11:45 a.m.
Tour Bellevue
Noon to 1 p.m.
Lunch at Downtown LaGrange
1 p.m. -- 2 p.m.
Drive to Columbus’ Historic District
2 p.m. -- 3 p.m.
Tour Historic District
3 p.m.
Return to Columbus Museum

Saturday, May 22

9 a.m.
Depart Columbus Museum for Eufaula
10 a.m. -- 11:45 a.m.
Tour Fendall Hall and Shorter Mansion
11:45 -- 12:45
Lunch in Eufaula
12:45 a.m. -- 1:15 p.m.
Drive to Lumpkin
1:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Tour Moye House/Slave Cabins
1:45 p.m. -- 2 p.m.
Drive to Westville
2 p.m. -- 3 p.m.
Tour Westville

This project is supported by The Aflac Foundation, by the Georgia Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and through appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly.

For gifts and educational items related to this exhibition, visit our Museum Shop.

Walker Peters Langdon House on Broadway in
Columbus, Georgia's Historic District

Introductions: Allyson Comstock
On view through March 14, 2010
Sidney H. Yarbrough III Gallery

This exhibition is the fifth installment in the Introductions series that is devoted to recent work by the best emerging regional artists. Allyson Comstock is an artist, administrator and studio faculty member at Auburn University. Working primarily in handmade paper to create two-dimensional artworks and in mixed media to create sculptural installations, Comstock explores ideas related to the natural world such as the healing properties of nature and ecological issues. She created all new artwork for this exhibition.

This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Fort Trustee Fund at the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley and by a gift from the Columbus Museum Guild.

For gifts and educational items related to this exhibition, visit our Museum Shop.

Symbiosis, 2009, handmade paper and turtle shell,
Allyson Comstock