GPC professor Dr. Paul Hudson, left, and University of Georgia professor Dr. Stephen Berry led talks related to the Lincoln exhibit. (Photo by Bill Roa)

Nationally acclaimed Civil War scholar and University of Georgia history professor Dr. Stephen Berry spoke at GPC’s Dunwoody Campus as part of the  national traveling exhibition, “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War.” 

The author of “House of Abraham: Lincoln and The Todds, A Family Divided by War,” Berry’s talk focused on the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

The lecture represented the GPC finale of the national exhibit, which examined the U.S. Constitution during Lincoln’s presidency and the Emancipation Proclamation. Featuring giant display placards and text, the exhibit was organized by the American Library Association and the National Constitution Center and was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. GPC was one of 200 libraries in the nation selected for the exhibit.

GPC faculty members also contributed to programming during the six-week run of the exhibit, including talks by Dr. Paul Hudson on the Emancipation Proclamation; and a panel featuring Dunwoody and Alpharetta history and political science professors Adam Stone, John Ferris, Ken Johnson, Paul Gaustad and Dr. Thomas Graham. Gaustad and Graham showed film clips of actor portrayals of Lincoln over the years, from “The Birth of a Nation,” to “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.”

“We had a great community response to the exhibit,” said Lora Mirza, interim director of the GPC Dunwoody Library. “Dr. Berry was a wonderful grand finale for an exhibit that featured three outstanding programs on Abraham Lincoln.”

The exhibit closed April 3.