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Martin Luther King Jr. comes alive not only on the page, but in photographs, recordings and old news footage in the historic display of his personal papers titled "I Have a Dream: The Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection," scheduled to open Monday at the Atlanta History Center.

The exhibition, which encompasses some 600 artifacts — including college exams and books from King's library as well as handwritten sermon texts — is likely to be the last time so many of the documents will be shown together, according to the Atlanta History Center's executive director, James Bruns.

Photos by JOEY IVANSCO/Staff (ENLARGE)
Glen Kyle prepares to hang a portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Atlanta History Center. Morehouse College now holds a vast trove of King artifacts, and the history center will display some next week. Such a large public showing may never be duplicated.
(ENLARGE)
Michael Rose of the Atlanta History Center looks at some of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s papers. The exhibit will open to the public Monday at the center.
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IF YOU GO The collection: "I Have a Dream: The Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection." Opening: Festivities, including hands-on activities and a performance by a cappella group D'Vine. When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Jan. 15. Cost: Free. Where: Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road N.W., Atlanta. 404-814-4000, www.atlantahistorycenter.com. MORE Free admission the first weekend of each month and every Monday. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; noon-5:30 p.m. Sundays. Jan. 15-May 13. $15; $12 ages 65 and older and students ages 13 and older; $10 ages 4-12; ages 3 and younger free. PHOTOS Take a sneak peek at the exhibit

The exhibit — which traces King's evolution from student to pastor to civil rights leader, ending with the speech he made hours before he was slain in 1968 — is taken from a collection of more than 10,000 King documents purchased for $32 million by a consortium of Atlanta interests last year. Now under the stewardship of Morehouse College and stored at the Robert W. Woodruff Library at the Atlanta University Center, the trove will likely be the foundation of a future civil rights museum in Atlanta.

Reporters were allowed an early look at the exhibit Tuesday. Among the unusual artifacts viewers will see:

• Boxes of index cards of thoughts and quotes, which King began as a college student and which he consulted throughout his career.

• The four books he authored, in various translations, from Norwegian to Japanese.

• A mimeographed list, the only one known to exist, of instructions on how to behave according to nonviolent principles, distributed before the Montgomery bus boycott.

• Comic books dated 1969 from a series that tell the story of the civil rights movement, including "The Montgomery Method," a primer to help people get involved. Some 250,000 were sold at 10 cents each.

The exhibition is largely chronological, in a pattern similar to the pre-auction display at Sotheby's in New York last June. That's no coincidence. The two share a curator: Elizabeth Muller.

A books-and-manuscript specialist at Sotheby's, Muller had worked on inventorying and evaluating the papers since the collection came to Sotheby's in the late 1990s. Muller, who wrote much of the auction catalog as well, worked with the history center as a volunteer.

Muller's familiarity with the holdings was invaluable, especially considering the time constraints — six months to do what ordinarily takes two years — the history center faced in organizing and mounting the show.

(According to Vice Chairman David Redden, Sotheby's waived a buyer's premium for the Atlanta consortium that purchased the papers, which it would ordinarily require to help cover its costs. It did receive a fee from the seller, the King estate, which is customary. It would not reveal the sum.)

It was necessary to pare down the Sotheby's' show, which occupied 20,000 square feet to fit the center's 6,000-square-foot gallery space. However, even if space hadn't been an issue, says co-curator Michael Rose, AHC director of archives and research services, he would have wanted to reshape it.

"The Sotheby's show was about the collection, so they wanted to show as many documents possible," Rose explains. "We wanted ours to be about the man. We made an effort to really let King speak, to emphasize his thoughts and words. ... You literally watch him develop and grow. "

The sermons, which represent the core of King's career and his thinking, dominate the exhibit, which also acknowledges that King's oratorical skills contributed to the impact of his words. Photojournalist Flip Shulke's shots of King on the pulpit call attention to his expressive face and hand movements. Riveting videos testify to his sonorous, charismatic delivery.

If those who glimpsed the papers at Sotheby's are any indication, Atlanta visitors will want to spend time reading the documents. To that end, they are mounted in shallow cases so visitors can get close to them, and tilted to better catch the light, which is kept at a relatively low level to protect the fragile paper. Books are propped open to reveal the notes — and even outlines for sermons — that King wrote in the margins. Artifacts are grouped to show recurring imagery.

"When people ask how long will it take to go through the exhibition, I say jokingly, 'a week and a half.' Seriously, I expect repeat visitors," Rose says.

Some may find that the most moving moments are not necessarily the famous ones. Bruns points out his favorite document, near the end of the exhibit. It's a scrap of paper, dog-eared, presumably from many foldings and unfoldings, on which King had written words of his hero Mahatma Gandhi:

"In the midst of death, life persists. In the midst of darkness, light persists. We are today in the midst of death and darkness. We can strengthen life and [live] by our personal acts by saying 'no' to violence, by saying 'yes' to life."