FERRISBURGH — Rokeby Museum’s 2017 exhibition, “Yours in the Cause: Faces of Radical Abolition,” opens on Sunday, July 9, with a gallery talk by Director Jane Williams at 3 p.m. The talk is free with museum admission.
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. It’s your chance to meet some of the most principled and determined Americans you’ve probably never heard of.
Rarely seen historic photographs depict 14 abolitionists who were chosen for their ties to the Robinsons as documented in letters, account books, and broadsides. The daguerreotypes, tintypes, and cartes de visite — the earliest forms of photography — were gathered from collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society and Swarthmore College.
These early photographs 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.