Exhibit Includes Artifacts That Highlight New York's Leading Role in Establishing Memorial Day Holiday
An exhibit has been unveiled in the State Capitol that honors New York's service men and women who have died in war, as well as highlighting the state's leading role in the birth of the Memorial Day holiday.
"This exhibit will give New Yorkers and those who visit the Capitol a place to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in service to our country," Governor Cuomo said.
"From the very first Decoration Day parades
down Main Street, Waterloo in the mid-19th Century, New York State has led the
nation in designating a special day to commemorate the men and women in our
armed services who paid the ultimate sacrifice. I encourage all New Yorkers,
young and old, to visit this exhibit to learn about our state's extraordinary
history, while also taking pause to honor the fallen."
The Governor’s office noted that during the Civil War, there were more soldiers serving from New York than any other state, and the Village of Waterloo in Seneca County is recognized as the birthplace for Memorial Day.
In May of 1866, a pharmacist named Henry Welles
organized a "Decoration Day" in Waterloo to honor the New Yorkers who
died during the Civil War. The graves of fallen soldiers were decorated,
patriotic bunting was hung on buildings, and veterans of the Union Army paraded
down Main Street, Waterloo.
Decoration Day gained popularity and in 1868,
John Logan, the head of the Union Army Veterans’ Association, proclaimed May 30th Decoration
Day for the North. In 1873, New York became the first state to officially
declare Declaration Day a holiday.
While Decoration Days were being celebrated in the North, Judge Francis Miles Finch, an Associate Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, published his poem, "The Blue and the Gray," in the September 1867 issue of the Atlantic Monthly Journal.
The poem helped inspire a national movement to
recognize a single Memorial Day for all of the soldiers who died during the
Civil War.
The Capitol Memorial Day Exhibit tells the story of New York’s role in the birth of this important holiday, with pictures of Welles, Logan and General John B. Murray, and the role these individuals played.
There are also 19th Century pictures of
Waterloo portraying the early Decoration Day celebrations.
The exhibit will be located in the State Street
lobby on the first floor of the State Capitol building in Albany for several
weeks before moving to the War Room on the second floor.
The following artifacts are on display:
Logan,
John Alexander: The Volunteer Soldier of America by John A. Logan: With
Memoir of the Author and Military Reminiscences from General Logan’s Private
Journal
Sheet
music of America Here’s My Boy. Music by Arthur Lange. Words by
Andrew B. Sterling.
Editorial
cartoon drawn by Hy Rosen and published in the Albany Times Union to
mark Memorial Day 1963
I’ll Be
Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams) Words and music by Kim Gannon,
Walter Kent, Buck Ram
Sheet
Music of After the War Is Over: Will There Be Any Home Sweet Home? Music
by Joseph Woodruff. Words by E.J. Pourmon.
Postcards
of Civil War monuments that were dedicated on Memorial Day
Oration of
General John A. Logan: Delivered Upon the Occasion of the Decoration of Union
Soldiers' Graves, at the National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., on Memorial Day,
May
Mills
Memorial and Decoration Day Programme
Memorial
Day of the Grand Army of the Republic, Borough of Manhattan
A copy of
the September 1867 Atlantic Monthly Journal
In addition to the panel and artifacts, a
portrait of Judge Francis Miles Finch – on loan from the Court of Appeals –
will be on display.
This is the first time the portrait has been on
display outside of the Court of Appeals.
Visit http://www.hallofgovernors.ny.gov/generic/memorialdayexhibit to obtain more information about the exhibit.
Image courtesy of
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