Slavery, Servitude, and Tenant Labor at America’s House Museum

Dean's Alley, 1st Floor, Meyerson Hall - 210 South 34th Street 

Join CPCRS Research Fellow Brian Whetstone for an engaging look at the evolution of the public history field’s entanglements with the legacies of slavery at house museums. This talk will explore how formerly enslaved men and women and domestic servants emerged as the first generation of frontline workers as large plantations and estates transitioned from private homes to public historic sites at the end of the nineteenth century. In their efforts to secure greater dignity and autonomy over their lives and labors, these men and women assumed significant roles in shaping the early public history workplace.

Brian Whetstone is a federal historian with the Historic Architecture, Conservation, and Engineering Center (HACE) of the National Park Service. His research explores the intersections between public history, heritage, and twentieth- century urban history in the United States. Whetstone received his PhD in History and a graduate certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2023. 

This talk will be moderated by Laura Keim, lecturer of History of the American Domestic Interior in the Department of Historic Preservation and curator at Stenton since 1999.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. 

For those who cannot attend in-person, the lecture will be livestreamed here.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.