FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rick Collin
February 8, 2008
(701) 328-1476

LINCOLN BICENTENNIAL LAUNCHED TODAY IN NORTH DAKOTA WITH
OPENING OF NEW EXHIBIT AT HERITAGE CENTER; GOVERNOR ISSUES PROCLAMATION

BISMARCK – The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial observance was launched today in North Dakota with the grand opening of a new exhibit at the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck. 
The opening of Lincoln’s Legacy in North Dakota is in conjunction with the official launch of the national observance activities, which begin Monday, February 11 in Louisville, Kentucky.  On Tuesday,
First Lady Laura Bush will deliver the keynote address at a ceremony at Lincoln’s birthplace near Hodgenville, Kentucky.  The 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth is February 12, 2009.

Lincoln’s Legacy in North Dakota has been produced by the state’s history agency, the State Historical Society of North Dakota (SHSND).  It will be on display through January 31, 2010.

As part of today’s launch in North Dakota, Governor John Hoeven issued a proclamation that the state will officially observe the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth in conjunction with the national commemoration, beginning February 12, 2008 and continuing through February 12, 2010.  To read its text, visit www.nd.gov.

“Abraham Lincoln was one of our nation’s greatest Presidents, a remarkable leader who unified a nation and upheld the ideals of freedom, democracy, and equal opportunity for all,” said Governor Hoeven.  “North Dakota is proud to be commemorating the accomplishments of this great American and the indelible mark he has left on our country and our state.”

Among those participating in today’s ribbon cutting ceremonies for Lincoln’s Legacy in North Dakota were Governor Hoeven; SHSND Director Merl Paaverud; State Historical Board President
Al Berger; the members of the Lincoln Legislative Memorial Committee planning a program honoring Lincoln’s at the 2009 Legislative Assembly – committee chair and State Senator Tony Grindberg (R-Fargo), State Senator Carolyn Nelson (D-Fargo), State Representative Nancy Johnson (R-Dickinson), and State Representative Ed Gruchalla (D-Fargo); Lincoln Bicentennial State Liaison and SHSND Communications and Education Director Rick Collin; North Dakota Council on the Arts Executive Director Jan Webb; and North Dakota Humanities Council Executive Director Jan Daley Jury.

Also participating at today’s launch were historical illustrator Steve Stark of Fargo, and fourth grade students from Northridge and Will-Moore Elementary Schools in Bismarck.  Through drawings and discussion, Stark presented the life of Smith Stimmel, a longtime Fargo resident who served as one of Lincoln’s White House bodyguards.  Stimmel (1842-1935) practiced law in Fargo from 1882 to 1922,
and is buried in Fargo’s Riverside Cemetery.  The students also visited information stations about the railroad, homesteading, American Indian culture and other topics, as well as viewing the exhibit.

“Lincoln is much more than the 16th President of the United States,” said Collin, who was appointed by Governor Hoeven in December 2005 as the state’s representative to the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.   “He represents not only to Americans, but to people around the world, the idea of many of our core values as human beings – equal rights, equality for all, democracy, freedom, liberty – and those are the ideals we’ll be remembering as part of our state’s Lincoln Bicentennial observance.”  Collin has worked at the SHSND since 1995. He also teaches a course on the American Presidency at the University of Mary in Bismarck, and is chairman of the North Dakota Humanities Council.

The exhibithighlights the Homestead Act, the coming of the railroad, and other Lincoln connections to the state.  Lincoln never visited what is now North Dakota, but the land that is now the 39th state was forever changed by the policies and laws enacted during his Presidency, and these are featured.  In addition to his signing of the Homestead Act and the Northern Pacific Railroad charter, the exhibit looks at his signing of the Morrill Land Grant College Act, which resulted in what is today North Dakota State University; the Minnesota Indian War of 1862, which included the Dakota (Sioux) siege of Fort Abercrombie; and remembering Lincoln, including the military forts and schools named in his honor.

The Homestead Act document is being brought to North Dakota as part of the state’s commemoration of Lincoln’s 200th birthday.  The document, which brought thousands of settlers to the Northern Plains, will be featured as part of Lincoln’s Legacy in North Dakota, on loan from the National Archives.  This national treasure is rarely displayed and has not been on public view since 1979.  Signed by President Lincoln on May 20, 1862, the document will be exhibited beginning Friday, May 16 and continuing through Friday, November 14, 2008.

The North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, in partnership with the SHSND, will exhibit several additional homestead-related documents, also from the National Archives, from May through September at its museum in Medora.

 The SHSND’s Curator of Exhibits Genia Hesser has been working closely with National Archives officials since May 2007 to arrange for the exhibition and delivery of this historic document to the state’s history museum. Because of their rare nature and strict environmental requirements, the National Archives limits exhibition of most of its archival materials to only one year per decade. 

Two of the Homestead Act’s four pages will be exhibited.  On display will be the first page, which begins, “An Act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain ...,” and the final page bearing the signatures of President Lincoln, U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Galusha A. Grow (R-PA), and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Sen. Solomon Foot (R-VT).  The Homestead Act, which took effect on January 1, 1863, opened up 10 percent of the United States, or 275 million acres, to settlement.  Between 1879 and 1886, more than 100,000 people settled in northern Dakota Territory.  To claim a 160-acre homestead, a man or woman had to be head of a household and at least 21 years of age.  The law required they also build a house, have at least 10 acres under cultivation, and live on the homestead for five years.  The first person in northern Dakota Territory to “prove up” on his homestead claim was Nelson E. Nelson of rural Pembina in 1877.

The 2007 Legislative Assembly approved $50,000 in ‘seed money’ in the SHSND’s budget for the 2007-09 biennium to help fund such projects as exhibits, curriculum development, and living history programs for the Lincoln Bicentennial in North Dakota, including working with the North Dakota Humanities Council to help fund a series of Chautauqua Lincoln-related characters.

The North Dakota Humanities Council will feature nationally recognized Chautauqua scholars in appearances in three cities in southeastern North Dakota beginning July 24 and continuing through August 4, 2008 as part of its Everett Albers Chautauqua Program, "Lincoln, Land, and Liberty: The Civil War Era and Beyond."  Dr. George Frein will appear as Abraham Lincoln; Charles Everett Pace as Frederick Douglass, a former slave, newspaper editor, and national abolitionist leader; and Dr. Carrol Peterson as poet Walt Whitman.  Dr. Jerry Tweton will serve as moderator in the character of William Jayne, who was appointed by President Lincoln in 1861 as the first territorial governor of Dakota Territory.  The program will include evening performances with the scholars in costumed portrayals, followed by a discussion.  Each scholar will also offer a daytime presentation on some aspect of the Lincoln era as well.  The host communities and itinerary will be announced by March 1.

All four of the Chautauqua scholars are well known in North Dakota for their presentations as part of the Great Plains Chautauqua Society during the past 20 years.  Dr. George Frein was a member of the Philosophy and Religion Department at the University of North Dakota (UND) from 1968 to 1997, when he retired as professor emeritus.  He moved to South Carolina, serving as the artistic director of the Greenville Chautauqua Society since 1999.  Dr. Carrol Peterson taught English at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, from 1964 to 2000.  He has interpreted the characters of Thomas Paine, Jack London, James Thurber, and Walt Whitman in 16 states and the District of Columbia with various Chautauqua groups.  Charles Everett Pace holds a master of arts degree in American Studies from Purdue University.   As a veteran Chautauquan, he has portrayed the figures of Malcolm X, Booker T. Washington, Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Du Bois, and York, as well as Frederick Douglass, throughout the United States, Africa and England.  Dr. Jerry Tweton is professor emeritus of history at UND and serves as the senior consultant to the North Dakota Humanities Council.  He has long been involved in Chautauqua,  portraying figures such as John Jacob Astor and  Theodore Roosevelt.

The Humanities Council will also sponsor a "Lincoln, Land, and Liberty" Symposium in Fargo-Moorhead in October 2008, to be held at various times and locations.  Using the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address as texts, the programs will explore such topics as Lincoln’s views on race, the role of religion in civic culture, citizenship and emancipation, freedom and democracy.  Images of Lincoln in photographs, art, and poetry; music of the Civil War; and book discussions are all in the planning stages with faculty from UND, North Dakota State University, Concordia College, and Minnesota State University-Moorhead.  As the capstone to the Lincoln Symposium, Civil War historian Dr. James McPherson will present a free public keynote address at the historic Fargo Theatre on Thursday, October 16 at 7 p.m., to be broadcast at a later date statewide on Prairie Public Television.  Born in Valley City, North Dakota, McPherson won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for his epic work, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. His talk is part of the Read North Dakota consortium’s focus on nonfiction books in 2008.  For a list of titles, visit www.readnd.org.

The North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA) received $10,000 in funding from the 2007 Legislative Assembly for Lincoln-related arts programming statewide.  That programming will include sponsorship of artist-in-residence programs by the Northern Prairie Performing Arts Troupe from the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre.  Residencies will include workshops on Shakespeare, makeup, improvisation, and stage combat.  In addition, the Troupe will perform Shakespeare’s work in contemporary settings to engage Shakespeare in a completely new educational way.  The production will work well with state standards in English, language arts and drama.  Lincoln, said his private secretary John Hay, “read Shakespeare more than all other writers together.”  Hay said he would listen for hours, “evening after evening,” as Lincoln read to him from his favorite plays: Hamlet, King Lear, the histories, and especially MacBeth. In addition, the Louisville Orchestra commissioned American composer and North Dakota native Peter Schickele to compose the work, Lincoln at Ease, for the national launch of the Lincoln Bicentennial in Kentucky.  The orchestra has granted the state of North Dakota performance rights of the work after its premiere on February 11, 2008.  The NDCA is working with orchestras within North Dakota to perform this composition during the state’s Lincoln Bicentennial commemoration in 2008-09.  The work showcases Lincoln’s Kentucky heritage, as period songs from Lincoln’s life are woven into the composition with wonderful narrative and solos on harmonica and banjo.

As the state’s history agency, the SHSND is also sponsoring a two-part theme for the state history conference, under the titles Lincoln Legacy: The Railroad and Lincoln Legacy: The Homestead Act.  The Fall 2008 history conference theme will be the Homestead Act, examining its impact on North Dakota and the region.  It will take place November 7-8 at the North Dakota Heritage Center.  The November 2-3, 2007 theme was the railroad.  For more about the November 7-8 history conference, call SHSND Curator of Education Marilyn Snyder at (701) 328-2792 or email msnyder@nd.gov.

In addition, the SHSND is working closely with the North Dakota Humanities Council, the North Dakota Council on the Arts and the Prairie Public television network to develop an hour-long television program on the Homestead Act and Lincoln’s role in signing it, which will premier this fall.

The SHSND will also feature a series of Abraham Lincoln Fun Facts on milk cartons produced by Cass-Clay Creamery, Inc. of Fargo.  Cass-Clay Creamery will place a series of Lincoln connections to North Dakota Fun Facts, also featuring the SHSND’s agency logo and website address, on some 120 million half-pint and half-gallon milk cartons distributed for sale in the Dakotas and Minnesota through the course of the bicentennial.  This is a follow-up to the Society’s successful partnership during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial of 2003-07, when the SHSND produced Lewis and Clark Fun Facts.

“The State Historical Society is the lead agency for the Lincoln Bicentennial and has limited funding resources, but we can help with some coordination and resource services,” said Collin.  “I encourage communities statewide to be thinking about how they would like to commemorate the bicentennial.  We want to be as inclusive as possible and encourage people to be creative in their ideas.”

Collin encourages those planning or interested in planning events to contact him.  He is planning to establish a Lincoln Bicentennial in North Dakota website as part of the SHSND’s website, and launch an electronic newsletter to keep people informed about the state’s plans later this year.  A Working Plan for the Lincoln Bicentennial in North Dakota has also been developed. It is available at the SHSND’s website at www.nd.gov/hist or, for a hard copy, by contacting Collin at (701) 328-1476 or email at rcollin@nd.gov.

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Note: A JPEG of the North Dakota-specific version of the national Lincoln Bicentennial logo is available by contacting Rick Collin at (701) 328-1476 or email at rcollin@nd.gov.