We went to the recently opened Karpeles Museum in Fort Wayne over the weekend. It is an intriguing place. For starters, it is in a gorgeous space- an old neighborhood church just off of Calhoun Street. It has rotating exhibits; currently it is Great Women in History. We just thought it was kind of amazing that the Warrant for the Execution of Mary Queen of Scots was in this little Fort Wayne neighborhood. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10A-4P. It is also absolutely free. We even asked if there was a donation box but the ladies there said no. The library provides educational programs and lectures for schools at all levels. It is due to the generous founder who has a lovely letter on the website explaining how he was filled with hope, pride, and inspiration from the world's predecessors when he was young but has seen that feeling dissipate with subsequent generations and would like to restore it. We highly recommend visiting here. It was fascinating just to see the penmanship and awe-inspiring to be in the presence of things like one of the only 14 surviving pages of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
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The Death Warrant for Mary Queen of Scots was purchased by The Lambeth Palace Library last year.
http://www.culture24.org.uk/history/art54382
Is the item on display at the Museum in Fort Wayne a copy?
We emailed the museum and this is the response we received from Lisa, the Director:
Yes it is a copy. We owned this manuscript for about 10 years, but were forced to preserve it in an English Bank vault. We felt that as part of the British Empire in the 1600's that America had some claim to preserve this great document. But Scotland and France also had strong claims. Our efforts exhausted us and we finally sold it to another American archive who wanted to try to export it to the United States. Their efforts also failed and they were forced to sell it to the royal collection. As you know, our collection rotates from museum to museum. When the collection started traveling, this document was part of our holdings. We had overlooked the fact that this copy was still traveling. We no longer own this manuscript so we have removed it from the exhibit! Thank you, for bringing this to our attention.
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