Journey Two
The White House Years

The Emancipation Proclamation places you in a special effects "Illusion Corridor" with a gauntlet of dream-like images of people yelling at you, as if you were Lincoln. Everyone is telling you what you should do about the emancipation controversy. The mix of very different, sometimes racist opinions reminds you that, even in the North, Lincoln was leading a deeply divided, mostly racist nation. You discover that, contrary to what you may have learned in school, the Emancipation Proclamation was not the obvious thing to do at the time and that it took great political courage to issue it.




The corridor of yelling people opens up into a room containing the figure of Lincoln standing behind a desk. On the wall above and behind him, the enlarged and twisted shadows 'Shadow Play' argue opposing points of view regarding emancipation. Lincoln hears their arguments but is resolved to proceed with his plan for emancipation.

The surrounding curved walls hold framed reproductions of period poster copies of the Proclamation.