The Blazing Through History exhibit in Seymour Library

The ‘Blazing Through History’ exhibit in Seymour Library is a narrative about the past of Knox College which is also an object. This concretization of collective history is structured around a timeline of events deemed relevant to the history of Knox College and Galesburg. The quotes surrounding the timeline provide further context: the exhibit narrates the history of the city and college as being founded by staunch abolitionists and as continuing to forward justice today. Additionally, a second board, placed to the left of the first, provides an interpretation of the first. It provides a compressed narrative of the history presented on the timeline while also acknowledging how the timeline fails to capture the entire history of the college. This reflexive analysis within the exhibit points us towards other narratives which could be made of the history of Knox College and Galesburg but which are not given a privileged place in the historic library like this board. The exhibit acknowledges that it is silencing other narratives of the history of Knox College and Galesburg, but it must, as that is a necessary step in the creation of any narrative of history. The board presents a narrative in order to reinforce a self-understanding of Knox College and its faculty and students as justice-seekers and of the college as integrally connected to the city of Galesburg. It justifies this way of understanding what it means to be a member of the Knox community through the set of historical events which it presents.