“What
made America free, and keeps it growing more so, was not a single
vision of liberty and freedom but the interplay of many visions. 
Together
these many ideas made America more free than any one American
ever was, or wished to be.”
–David
Hackett Fischer, Liberty and Freedom
Most Americans see our history as a story of liberty and freedom. Our country was founded on these ideas. But not everyone in America has been free, and no one at any time has been free to do whatever he or she pleases. This exhibition displays more than 200 objects that tell the story of American iconography. By looking at these symbols that Americans have invented to represent the ideas of liberty and freedom, we are able to see that these ideas have been both unifying themes and sources of tension in American history. Americans have had competing and often conflicting visions of liberty and freedom, and have debated and even fought over them. From this process, the meanings of liberty and freedom have gradually expanded through time, as each generation of Americans wrestles with their scope and application. Visitors to the exhibition will discover that, because of other competing factors such as cultural prejudice and the need for security, the ideals of freedom remain unfulfilled, and perfect freedom is never achieved.
Be sure to visit the American Visions of Liberty and Freedom Exhibition:
November
19, 2006–March
18, 2007
Organized by the Virginia Historical
Society with additional support from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter
Foundation and the
Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Changing Exhibitions Fund, American. Support
in St. Louis is provided by The Stanley and Lucy Lopata Foundation
This exhibition has been made possible in part
by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Great Ideas Brought to Life.
