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This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Martin Methodist College is honoring this important event with a display in the Gault Fine Art Center entitled “Emancipation Celebration.”

The exhibit consists of four panels from the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University. The panels give an overview of emancipation, reconstruction, the Civil War and the fight for freedom in the state of Tennessee.

The Barton Fine Arts Gallery is located on the second floor of the Gault Center on the Martin Methodist College campus in Pulaski, Tenn. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to the public.

The "Emancipation Celebration" exhibit will be on display until Feb. 15. For more information, call Bernice Davidson, assistant professor of art and curator of the Barton Gallery, at 931 363-9894.

"Matt Gardner Homestead Museum of Elkton, Tenn., has generously loaned us a display which educates about the life and lifestyle of a freed slave who lived in Giles County during the reconstruction times," said Bernice Davidson, assistant professor of art at Martin Methodist, and curator of the Barton Gallery.

"Mr. Gardner was born into slavery and freed in 1865. He was married and raised 11 children on 33 acres of land in Elkton," Davidson said. "Although he could not read himself, he hired and housed the teachers for the first public schools for black children in this county. He was the preacher for three black churches, and in1942 won a Governor’s Award for farming. He grew 75 percent of all the food for his family on his land."