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

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. From 2023 to 2024, Whetstone served as a Mellon Fellow in the Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities at Princeton University where he was appointed as a lecturer in the Effron Center for the Study of America.

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 organized by the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites. CPCRS advances the understanding and sustainable conservation of heritage places commemorating American civil rights histories and Black heritage. Our focus is on the long Black freedom struggle in the United States, from the founding of the country to the present, though we recognize that important civil rights histories and legacies draw on many other experiences in the US and abroad.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.