In this historically-focused traveling exhibit, visitors will explore the lives of two leaders who changed their nations forever, and whose lives ended in similar tragedy. Union Station invites Kansas City to commemorate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth with a memorable exhibition that examines the lives of Lincoln and Russia’s Tsar Alexander II, using personal memorabilia like Lincoln’s presidential speeches and the opulent artifacts of Russia’s royalty to tell each man’s story.
Lincoln and Alexander were revolutionary leaders who varied greatly in their backgrounds, cultures and rise to power, but who shared a similar conviction and revolutionary vision for equality in America and Russia. In 1861, Alexander freed Russia’s 22 million peasants from serfdom; then, two years later, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in America. In the exhibit, visitors will have a first-hand look at each man’s difficult choice, including diplomatic letters that the men exchanged, and American Civil War artifacts, like genuine slave shackles.
The Tsar and the President looks at the connections and parallels between Lincoln and Alexander, as well as the history of their paths to power and their tragic assassinations, with an examination of each man’s last moments. Featuring intimate and personal belongings of both leaders, plus more than 200 paintings, portraits, costumes, decorative art objects and items from Russian state museums and the U.S. Library of Congress, this historical exhibit is an unforgettable learning experience.
This exhibition was organized by the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation in Washington, D.C.
The University of Saint Mary has loaned two items from its 10,000-piece De Paul Library Lincoln Collection to be displayed in The Tsar and the President Exhibition. A plaster reproduction of a life mask of Abraham Lincoln made by Leonard Volk, and one of the rare copies of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution signed by Abraham Lincoln.
