‘Influencing Lincoln’ Indiana State Museum’s latest exhibit honors Juneteenth

INDIANAPOLIS — Monday, June 19 is Juneteenth and it’s only the third year the holiday has been federally recognized. In case you don’t know what this day is all about the Indiana State Museum has got you covered. 

As far as Juneteenth is concerned, the holiday commemorates a people’s combined efforts, shared experiences and the continued fight to capture a lasting freedom. Celebrating and honoring this journey embodies Juneteenth. 

Looking through a historical lens, we’ll discover when holiday takes root in its first celebrations back in 1865, when on June 19 Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas. With Galveston being one of the more remote areas of the Confederacy, word had not gotten to the slaves in bondage on southern plantations that the Civil War had ended with the Union reigning victorious. Those soldiers, liberating the slaves let them know they were free, U.S. citizens and as one could imagine those newly freed individuals celebrated!

The Indiana State Museum’s latest exhibit, Influencing Lincoln includes several items tying the Hoosier state and Lincoln’s Boyhood Home, to that overall pursuit of Black freedom; including the inkwell President Abraham Lincoln used in signing the Emancipation Proclamation, a signed copy of the 13th Amendment, legally ending slavery in 1865 and even a lock of the president’s hair!

“Those are certainly key touchstones that really relate, but the exhibition is full of wonderful objects including from other institutions that have loaned us powerful pieces to explore the work that went into achieving freedom,” Indiana State Museum & Historic Sites Chief Curator & Research Officer Susannah Koerber said. “It’s about the efforts to attain freedom and the work of the black community, how they were very organized, they were very deliberate in what they did and they were very effective in using the institutions they built, like black church, military service and their networks which included influential people like Abraham Lincoln to work both for the end of slavery and for recognition of equal rights as citizens.”

One of the pieces the museum displays most prominently in this exhibit is the 28th United States Colored Troops battle flag, Indiana’s only black regiment fighting during the Civil War. 

“Having this flag as a symbol of pride, of honor, of bravery… that they were willing to fight. That they were fighting for their freedom, and we understand their freedom is not enough… but they were fighting for freedom and citizenship and that we can name individuals who were a part of this battle – a part of this struggle, and having this flag that just stands as such a tribute to these men and their work and their effort is just so appreciative to have it here in the exhibit,” Indiana State Museum Curator of Social History Kisha Tandy said. “In many ways Juneteenth is the celebration of black freedom. The many efforts that black people were taking to ensure their freedom, the celebration of the freedoms that were gained and also work that is still yet to be done.”

The exhibit, ‘Influencing Lincoln’ hopes to also shed light on local, Indianapolis area institutions like Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church whose parishioners worked together tirelessly, through various networks built to bring about change through their connections to Abraham Lincoln in the 1860’s.

The exhibit is on display now at the Indiana State Museum through September.