The Story Behind the Collage “Liberty”

A few years ago I visited the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Virginia.  I was looking for information about my family history, and about local history in general.  I saw a book displayed, in a case, but open
to this page.  This book, “Falckner’s Curieuse Nachright,” stimulated the Great German Migration in the early 1700s.  It was “Frequently Asked Questions” about what life would be like in America. This particular answer explained that people would be free to move about as they wished, a freedom that is important in the myth of our founding.

I have many ancestors who came to America then, many of them part of this migration, so this was partly the answer that I wanted about why they came.  I’m sure there were other reasons, but reading about this freedom that was offered to immigrants was very moving to me.

After thinking about this, I wanted to find a way to honor this openness, particularly now that America is torn apart over this same issue.

 

This collage uses the quote as well as old postage stamps that seemed appropriate to the theme.  My original title for the collage was “The 86th Question” but after working on it for a while, “Liberty” seemed more defining.