Yours in the Cause

Yours in the Cause: Faces of Radical Abolition
(2017 seasonal exhibit)

Thousands of Americans banded together to overthrow slavery in the decades before the Civil War, including the Robinsons of Rokeby and the abolitionists featured in this insightful exhibition that explores their ideas and actions.

Rarely seen historic photographs depict a select group of abolitionists, each with ties to the Robinsons as documented in letters, account books, broadsides, and other artifacts that are also on view. It’s your chance to meet some of the most principled and determined Americans you’ve probably never heard of.

These daguerreotypes, tintypes, and cartes de visite — the earliest forms of photography — are engaging on their own, as historic artifacts. Understood in the context of their time, they help us to see the origins and structure of the American protest movement.