Ulysses Grant exhibit opens Friday in Cape Girardeau

An exhibit in celebration of the 200th anniversary of President Ulysses Grant's birth goes on display beginning Friday in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Kellerman Foundation for Historical Preservation will host the 275-square-foot exhibit at the former Chrisman Art Gallery, 32 N. Main St.

After opening, the exhibit will be available for public viewing from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays until the end of September at the same location.

Grant, the nation's 18th president and victorious Civil War general -- born in 1822 -- is said to have spent five days in Cape Girardeau in 1861.

The exhibit will feature items from Missouri Humanities Council and from the Grant memorabilia collection owned by Cape businessman Earl Norman.

The Grant exhibit features a scrimshaw whale carving of Ulysses S. Grant. The carving is part of the collection of Cape Girardeau busniessman Earl Norman. The Grant exhibit opens Friday until Sept. 30 in downtown Cape Girardeau on the site of the former Chrisman Art Gallery on North Main Street.Submitted

Norman bought the collection from another collector in California a quarter of a century ago.

A scrimshaw carving on a whale's tooth of Grant will be among Norman's items that may be viewed.

"Scrimshaw refers to the art technique of carving images into bone, ivory or tusks," a spokesperson for Kellerman Foundation said Friday. "Though there is evidence of the (scrimshaw) technique beings used almost 12,000 years ago, the art was popularized by 19th century Yankee whalers. After the demise of the whaling industry, existing scrimshaw artifacts have become increasingly rare and valuable."

Mary Ann Kellerman, co-founder of the foundation bearing her name, told the Southeast Missourian in May there has been an increase in interest about Grant in recent years, noting several more recent books about the former chief executive, including 2016's "American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant," by Ronald C. White.

Kellerman Foundation organized a Grant Symposium in 2017 and hosted 165 patrons at the event.