I went to the New York Historical Society today to see their new grand exhibit - Slavery in New York. I enjoyed it, very informative, well laid out. My favorite parts were the four maps detailing New York City and the lives of its black inhabitants from the mid-1600s to the early 1800s (of course, I am a planner) and the modern television financial network like screen that displayed slave trade information as if it were stock and bond information ticking by. The latter was interesting for its mix of shameful historical data (the prices of human beings) with a modern presentation format - were its creators attempting to question modern capitalism or were they trying to place old data in a format to which new eyes have become accustomed? Possibly, or probably both?

One reason I went to day is that they have and original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation written in pencil by Abraham Lincoln on display for only a week and a half or so. The final copy of this speech was destroyed in a fire in Chicago, so I guess this is the only (or one of the very few) original versions of it. It is interesting to think what one might learn by looking at a piece of paper with writing on it, but I guess but everyone was standing in line for was a chance to somehow connect with its author, Abraham Lincoln. By peering at his relatively legible script, could I get a feeling for the real person behind all the adulation? Would that looking at the original give me more of a feeling of the text and the man who wrote that than just reading the words in a book?