Reading the Emancipation Proclamation

This digital file is at the Library of College. The original print “accompanied a pamphlet published by Lucius Stebbins. Click on the image above for an enlarged view.

“President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation [digitized image] on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared that “all persons held as slaves [within the rebellious states] shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free are.”

“Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the United States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy (the Southern secessionist states) that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union (United States) military victory.”

To read the entire article on the National Archives website, click on “The Emancipation Proclamation.”

To view a transcript of the Proclamation, click here.

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Stethoscopes

Civil War-era monaural stethoscope in the collection of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Maryland

Binaural stethoscope circa 1870 in the collection of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Frederick, Maryland

Note: The images above appeared in “Historical Implications of a Failing Heart” by Richard A. Reinharton on the National Museum of Civil War Medicine blog on June 19, 2017.

“Museum From Home: A Brief History of the Stethoscope,” (4:51) Royal College of Physicians, November 12, 2020.
Senior curator Lowri Jones, senior curator at the Royal College of Physicians presents a brief history of the stethoscope which includes examples from the collection.

The Stethoscope. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1964.
Four-page biography of Renee Laennec who invented the stethoscope published for the Medical Museum of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

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The Lost Black Legion

Black men from New Jersey fought in the Civil War and returned to their homes when their service ended. Veterans from other states settled in New Jersey after they were discharged. In the 1990s, attorney Samuel Asbell began his quest to identify Black soldiers and sailors who were buried in Camden County, New Jersey. He walked graveyards, consulted records, read community histories and consulted with academics and local historians. His complete manuscript is available online (click on the image above). The names of two men who served in the 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry are included in the Appendix I: Alphabetical Lists of Servicemen and/or Appendix VI: Chew’s Camden City Directory 1872: Robert Brown alias Isaiah Wright, Company L and Samuel C. Jubilee, Company K,

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“Sussex County: A Tale of Three Centuries”

Sussex County Courthouse

Sussex County, A Tale of Three Centuries by the Virginia Writers Project was published in 1942. The research was a collaborative effort between those employed by the Work Project Administration and educators who worked for the county. The volume features photographs and lists of all types. Chapters and appendices include details about the school system (school officials, teachers, graduates, facilities), county officials, war veterans, and early land grants. A free version of the book is online at Internet Archive.

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Fort Monroe Visitor & Education Center

According to its website the Fort Monroe Visitor & Education Center “is designed to welcome and orient visitors to Fort Monroe and the local community as well as provide interpretive exhibits, research, and archival resources.”

The list below (taken from the website) is a list of some of the topics that can be explored during a visit:

• The Kecoughtan tribe – land and water, fishing and agriculture
• The 1612 map by Captain John Smith
• American Indians and the physical and cultural changes that took place with the arrival of Africans and Europeans
• Slavery and the 1619 arrival of Africans at Old Point Comfort
• Legislation that influenced daily life at Fort Monroe
• The role of the matriarch in African culture

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