Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum

In 2016 the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum located in Fremont, Ohio, underwent a major renovation to its main exhibits. "The core exhibits had been installed in 1968," Christie Weininger, executive director of the museum, explained, "so it was a time for an upgrade. We celebrated the centennial in 2016, so we wanted new exhibits then."¹ Prior to the renovations, the museum's main exhibits focused heavily on the themes of the Civil War and a more triumphant narrative of the Hayes family that left little room for a deeper historical context of the Hayes presidency. "We wanted exhibits that were more thought-provoking and visually stimulating," Weininger continues. "Also we wanted to share the personalities of Rud [Rutherford] and Lucy—what were they like? What did they worry about? What were they trying to accomplish?" To achieve these aims, the historians of the museum drew heavily on the manuscript materials contained in the archives to find

Patrons of the recently renovated Hayes exhibits learn about the family's servants, the role of race, and a more nuanced view of the Hayes family. Patrons also learn more about the so-called "Compromise of 1877," and how the Hayes Administration fits into the longer history of Reconstruction, Gilded Age, and Progressive Era America.

quotes and excerpts from documents so visitors could hear the voices of the Hayes family and their contemporaries.

In this way, the renovations to the museum's main exhibits have drastically heightened the public's understanding of how the nineteenth president's single term in office fit within the period following Reconstruction and preceding the Progressive Era. First built in 1916, the library and museum was the first such presidential library built in the United States. This is particularly fascinating given that Hayes's reputation in American history, when discussed, is done with a cloud of suspicion. Coming into office in 1877 following a contentious election year, Hayes is often remembered as the "president who ended Reconstruction." American historians point to the so-called "Compromise of 1877" where the Republican Party agreed to end federal occupation of former Confederate states, effectively beginning the period of Jim Crow and legal segregation in the American South.

The exhibits acknowledge that legacy but argue that Hayes's presidency was part of a series of longer decisions from the federal government to end Reconstruction. Instead of seeing Hayes as a single point, the exhibits contextualize 1877 and argue that the rise of Jim Crow was part of a more troubling tendency in American history. Yet, the staff of the museum is far from apologetic about the Hayes family's various shortcomings. Following the completion of the renovations, the museum's staff began offering a program called the "Backstairs Tour" where visitors could learn about the Hayes estate through the experiences of Rutherford and Lucy's household staff. Prior museum tours had largely relied on a triumphant narrative that Lucy's family (the Webbs) were passionately antislavery, and that her political ideas eventually influenced Rutherford.

"The true story is clearly not this cut-and-dried," curator Dustin McLochlin explains, "Lucy does not show a strong commitment towards abolitionism (she even derisively talks about abolitionists) and many of the stories about these slaves Lucy's mom inherited cannot be corroborated by the evidence." Although it is known that Rutherford did defend enslaved people in helping to win their freedom in court, the Hayes' household staff's legal status is at best questionable. McLochlin explains that this has to do with, "the flow of migration between the slave state of Kentucky and the free state of Ohio, creat[ing] an uneasy border for slavery. While I think many slave owners had an innate understanding that moving a slave into Ohio was risky, there still remained a dubious understanding of the pure legal ramifications." Therefore, when the Webb family came to own a number of people and then transported them north to Ohio a real question has to be asked over how "free" these people were simply...