Lesson in U.S. history

The display includes a rare 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence.
BOARDMAN -- A traveling exhibition depicting American history from the days of this nation's founding through the Civil Rights battles of the 1960s is coming to Boardman Center Middle School, 7410 Market St.
"Freedom: A History of US" will be on display from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays Monday through Feb. 28 and is free and open to the public.
The exhibition was created and funded by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Boardman pupils will be studying the exhibit as part of their course work. The panel exhibit draws on key documents and images to illustrate the changing understanding of freedom in America, from the founding era through 1968.
It presents some of the men and women who fought to expand freedom to all Americans. Among the highlights are a rare 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence, a secretly printed draft and official copy of the U.S. Constitution, Abraham Lincoln's handwritten notes of speeches and letters by such leading figures as Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Descriptions of the meaning of freedom to the common man are found in the personal letters of Civil War soldiers.
The sections
The materials are organized into five sections: The Founding Era; A Young Republic; A Nation Dividing: The Firestorm in the Night; The Civil War; and Epilogue.
"The debates, decisions and battles of our past shape the United States in which we live today," said James G. Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
"Americans know that their history is grounded in the experiences of real men and women. This exhibition invites you to read the words and see the images of men and women who, whether they arrived in this land by choice or in chains, forged this nation," he said.
"February is Presidents' Month as well as Black History Month and this will be a good way to study how freedom plays such a part in all that we are and all that we aspire to be as a people and nation," said Jesse McClain, eighth-grade language arts teacher at Boardman Center Middle School.
The documents and images in the exhibition are from the Gilder Lehrman and the Kunhardt collections.
The Gilder Lehrman Institute, founded in 1994, is based in New York City and promotes the study and love of American history, targeting audiences ranging from school pupils to scholars to the general public. It creates history-centered schools and academic research centers, organizes seminars and enrichment programs, produces traveling exhibitions and publications and sponsors lectures by eminent historians.