"Whispers of Lincoln" photo exhibit coming to Ritz

In 1828, Abraham Lincoln, just 19 years old, traveled by flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, delivering goods to New Orleans. What sights, sounds and sensations did Honest Abe experience along Old Man River? Perhaps only Lincoln knew, until now.

"Whispers of Lincoln: 26 days, Two Rivers, One Photographer and a Flatboat" is a photographic exhibit opening at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 in The Galley of The Ritz Civic Center in Blytheville. The exhibit will be open for viewing throughout the month of March. In 2010, this exhibit was featured in the Mississippi River Museum at Mud Island River Park in Memphis, and this will be its Arkansas debut.

Featuring 61 pictures taken by photojournalist Millie Delphia Carter, the exhibit captures not only Lincoln's point of view during this historic trip, but also his spirit. Carter took the photographs in 2008, chronicling Lincoln's Journey of Remembrance, a flatboat re-enactment of his expedition from Rockport, Ind., to New Orleans. Two flatboat scale models, a narrative DVD and artifacts round out this comprehensive exhibit for the public and school groups. To schedule groups, call 870-762-1744.

In 1828 Lincoln lived in southern Indiana and was hired by a wealthy merchant to accompany a New Orleans bound flatboat, probably loaded with corn, oats, beans and pork. It took the crew three months to complete the 1,100-mile trip. The job paid only $24, but left Lincoln rich with experience, as he first witnessed the cruelties of slave auction.

On Sept. 9, 2008, in honor of the Great Emancipator's 200th birthday, a small crew boarded an authentically reproduced flatboat to retrace Lincoln's voyage. This trip took only 26 days to complete, aided by two concealed motors. The flatboat docked at more than 20 port towns before arriving in New Orleans on Oct. 4, 2008. Documenting the entire event, Carter snapped more than 3,000 color and black-and-white digital photos from the flatboat, a second boat and from shore. Via camera, she discovered not only the physical realms of Lincoln's journey but psychological implications as well.

An extrasensory moment inspired the exhibit's title and theme. At the onset of the journey, Carter arrived at dawn to shoot by morning light. While a misty rain hovered above the Ohio River, Carter time-traveled to 1828 in her mind.

"It was totally calm, and all of a sudden the flag on the boat moved, and I heard a ripple, a whisper that said 'Follow the River'" she recalled. "When I turned around, no one was there."

Whether she was searching for a 300-year-old Cypress tree or exploring a cave, Carter sought Lincoln's voice and character beyond the water itself, photographing life along the river's banks. She heard Lincoln's "Last Whisper" in New Orleans, where she dined at a Bourbon Street restaurant that once served as a slave block site. The photos vary in size--from 8-by-10 to 16-by-20 -- but all illustrate Carter's desire to expose the history of both Lincoln and the rivers.

"I wanted to know what was beneath the waters," she noted. "What was buried in time?"

"Whispers of Lincoln" is the answer to that question, and more. The exhibit boasts an authentic boatman's tin horn and cow horn, replica flatboat models of both Lincoln's 1828 flatboat and Journey of Remembrance, and a cotton harvesting display.

Since the 1970s Carter has watched the world through a keen lens. This award-winning photographer has captured varied subjects, from newborn white coat seal pups in Canada, to the migration of Caribou, to children at a Wisconsin Christian Summer Camp. In 2001, she published a two-volume set of family history books, a project requiring 12 years of research.