Carnegie Center Celebrates Release of
Southeast Indiana Trails to Freedom Driving Tour Booklet

Friday July 7, 2006, 3:00-5:00 pm

For eleven years, Isaac Throgmorton planned his escape. His verbatim account has survived: "I had been seeking a chance for all those eleven years, and the first chance that I saw clear, I started off fishing. I had all my arrangements made to go down to New Albany, and carried my fishing tackle in my pocket. The ferryman at New Albany asked me if I was a freeman, and I said, ‘Yes.’ Said he, ‘Where are your free papers? You must show your free papers, or have somebody that knows that you are free.’ I said, ‘Your son knows me,’ (I went over the day before with a freeman, and the son saw me). He asked his son if he knew me, and he said, ‘Yes, he went over the other day.’ From New Albany I went to Jeffersonville, and there took the cars (railroad) and came right along to Canada…"

The preceding is one of the stories included in Southeast Indiana Trails to Freedom, a full color, 62-page booklet featuring 3 driving tours that trace Underground Railroad routes in 17 counties in southeast Indiana. The Carnegie Center will be hosting a free event to celebrate the release of this booklet on Friday, July 7 from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. The Carnegie Center is the Gateway to Tour One, Eleutherian College in Lancaster is the Gateway to Tour Two, and the Levi Coffin State Historic Site in Fountain City is the Gateway to Tour Three. Visit www.southeastindianatrailstofreedom.com for more information on the Gateways and other sites featured on the tours.

At the Carnegie Center’s celebration on July 7, visitors can enjoy complimentary grilled hot dogs, ice cream and lemonade from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. The men’s quartet "Deep River Songbirds" will perform from 3:00 to 3:30 pm, and from 3:30 to 4:15 pm, storyteller and author Judith Lalude-Owens will present "The Long Walk," an interactive story told in the first-person about a nine-year-old girl, Wednesday, and her Mama who decide to run away from their owner, Master Ben.

At 4:15 pm, Carnegie Center Director Sally Newkirk will welcome visitors and introduce our guests, The Honorable James Garner, Mayor of New Albany, Steven A. Berrey of the Indiana Historical Society, Jae Breitweiser of Eleutherian College, and Janice McGuire of the Levi Coffin State Historic Site. At 4:30 pm, visitors can lend their ears to our "Freedom Ambassadors," young people who will be reading the stories of escapes to freedom and those who helped them in the Southeast Indiana Trails to Freedom booklet.

Isaac Throgmorton, the escaping slave whose account appeared at the beginning of this release, is one of many real individuals included in the Carnegie Center’s permanent exhibit, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: Men and Women of the Underground Railroad. This exhibit combines traditional museum exhibit displays with a multimedia, interactive DVD, which visitors view in a small theatre within the exhibit. Text and graphic panels provide a visual introduction to the Underground Railroad through original documents relating to actual people whose stories and perspectives visitors follow throughout the exhibit.

Come celebrate the release of the Southeast Indiana Trails to Freedom driving tour booklet Friday July 7, 2006, 3:00-5:00 pm at the Carnegie Center for Art and History! Please join us for this free event!

3:00-5:00 pm Enjoy grilled hot dogs, ice cream and lemonade 3:00-3:30 pm Performance by Deep River Songbirds, Men's Quartet 3:30-4:15 pm Storyteller and author, Judith Owens-Lalude will present The Long Walk, an interactive story told in the first- person about a nine-year-old girl, Wednesday, and her Mama who decide to run away from their owner, Master Ben. 4:15 pm Welcome and Introductions Sally Newkirk, Director, Carnegie Center for Art & History, Gateway to Tour One The Honorable James Garner, Mayor of New Albany Steven A. Berrey, Indiana Historical Bureau Jae Breitweiser, Eleutherian College, Lancaster, Indiana, Gateway to Tour Two Janice McGuire, Levi Coffin State Historic Site, Gateway to Tour Three 4:30 pm Freedom Ambassadors, young people reading the stories of escapes to freedom and those who helped them presented in Southeast Trails to Freedom