Museum Opens Quantrills Raid Exhibit

A Lawrence museum is opening a new $300,000 exhibit as the city marks the 150th anniversary of William Clarke Quantrill’s Confederate guerrilla attack on the pro-union town.

The exhibit opens Saturday at the Watkins Museum of History. It features displays and artifacts from the Civil War and Bleeding Kansas eras.

Among the items on display is Ernst Ulmer’s 4-by-6-foot canvas painting depicting Quantrill’s Raid. The loaned piece, valued at about $30,000, greets visitors as they enter the exhibit.

It also features a newly constructed booth with a large touch-screen television that allows visitors to point to places on a digital map of Lawrence. Different points on the map tell different stories, both in pictures and audio.