Johns Hopkins University Museums

Border City, Border War: Freedom and Slavery in Antebellum Baltimore
2023-11-02 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Homewood Museum, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
In the decades before the Civil War, Baltimore sat uneasily at the center of a border slave state engaged in a border war. To commemorate the 159th anniversary of Maryland’s Emancipation Day (November 1, 1864), Homewood welcomes professor Richard Bell of the University of Maryland, College Park, to talk about the antebellum enslaved experience, interstate sales, fugitivity, free Black life, colonization, and kidnapping in Baltimore between 1825 and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. His award-winning talk will reconstruct several major shifts in power, politics, and population over this critical period, as well as the fights and furies that resulted, shifting attention away from more familiar flashpoints of the sectional crisis—Nat Turner, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott, and John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry—and toward a new understanding of the war before the war, as it unfolded in Maryland’s largest city.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Richard Bell has been a history professor at University of Maryland, College Park since 2006. He received his B.A. from University of Cambridge and masters and Ph.D. from Harvard University. His research interests focus on American history between 1750 and 1877. He has written three books, including his most recent, Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home.

Music at Evergreen 2023-2024
2023-11-05 14:00 - 16:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
ABOUT THE SERIES
Evergreen Museum & Library’s popular and eclectic Music at Evergreen concert series returns for its 70th season, presenting live performances by rising classical music stars in the museum’s stunning Bakst Theatre (pictured).
The series opens on Sunday, November 5, with a performance by harpist Noel Wan, who has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Yellow Barn Summer Festival. The series continues on February 11, with soprano Sage DeAgro and accordionist Iwo Jedynecki. DeAgro-Ruopp’s most recent roles include Johanna in Sonheim’s Sweeny Todd and Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Jedynecki is the winner of over thirty top prizes in international music competitions. The series concludes on Sunday, March 3, with the Viano Quartet, who won first prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition.
All concerts begin at 2 p.m. and are followed by a meet-and-greet reception with the performers.
Space is limited; advance tickets are required. These tickets are for ALL THREE performances. Click on the performer’s name above to purchase tickets to a single concert.

SPONSORSHIP
Music at Evergreen is made possible by the Evergreen House Foundation.

Music at Evergreen: Noël Wan, Harp
2023-11-05 14:00 - 16:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
ABOUT THE PERFORMER
Lauded as “a huge talent [with] hidden power and amazing maturity,” Taiwanese-American harpist Noël Wan made her international debut with the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra in 2010. An acclaimed soloist, she has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia and has been featured at Carnegie Hall, het Muziekgebouw, Eslite Hall, and the Yellow Barn Summer Festival. Her 2023-2024 engagements include a Debut Atlantic Concert Tour and concerts presented by the Virginia Harp Center Festival, Taiwan Harp Festival, Conservatoire de musique de Montréal’s Harpenning Festival, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, and St. John’s Elora Recital Series.
An alumna of the University of Illinois (BM, DMA) and the Yale School of Music (MM), Noël is equally comfortable in her roles as a performer, academic, and educator. She has presented her scholarly work at the American Harp Society Summer Institute and the American String Teachers Association National Conference and has contributed to Harp Column, The Collective, The American Harp Journal, and VAN Magazine. Also highly sought as a teacher, Noël has been on faculty at the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and Western University; she currently serves as Assistant Professor of Harp and Entrepreneurship at Florida State University.
The concert will be followed by a meet-and-greet reception with the artist. Space is limited space; advance tickets required.
Click here for Music at Evergreen subscription tickets.

PROGRAM (Subject to change at the artist’s discretion)
Prelude, op. 12, no. 7 Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
“Contrapunctus I” from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 J.S. Bach (1685-1750) trans. Wan
Wisdom Eye (1975) Alice Coltrane (1937-2007) arr. Wan
From the Eastern Gate (1985) Alexina Louie (b. 1949) Ceremonial Music

Haiku I

On Impermanence

Haiku II

Birds at a Mountain Temple

Haiku III

The Mandarins

INTERMISSION
Every Lover is a Warrior (2006) Kati Agócs (b. 1975) John Riley

Love is Come Again

When They Take Me For a Soldier

Julia Florida (1938) Agustín Barrios (1885-1944) trans. Wan
Légende d’après “Les Elfes” de Leconte de Lisle Henriette Renié (1875-1956)
La Madone (Lullaby), op. 43 (2009) Caroline Lizotte (b. 1969)

SPONSORSHIP
Music at Evergreen is made possible by the Evergreen House Foundation.

Sketching at Homewood - Drawing Room
2023-11-07 12:00 - 13:00 | Homewood Museum, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Homewood Museum invites artists of all ages and abilities to spend an hour sketching the Drawing Room. This vibrant room, which is decorated to appear as it might have circa 1812, contains several collection highlights, including a period musical instruments, painted furniture, portraits of George Washington and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and colorful reproduction wallpaper. A docent will be on hand to answer any questions about the room, the collection, and the history of the house and its inhabitants.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Supplies are not included with purchase of ticket.
In order to protect the collection, only pencils or colored pencils can be used when sketching inside the house. Water pens are not allowed.
Due to the historical nature of the building, accessibility is limited, and some parts of the museum can only be reached via stairs.
Stools are available for the duration of the session.
Full guided house tour is not included.

2023 Homewood Museum Architecture Lecture: Homewood’s Backyard with Michael Olmert
2023-11-08 18:00 - 20:00 | Mason Hall, 3101 Wyman Park Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Homewood’s architectural footprint extended beyond the main house to include several outbuildings, most notably the still extant and recently restored brick privy. For this year’s Architecture Lecture, Michael Olmert, a professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an expert on 18th-century Mid-Atlantic outbuildings, will give an illustrated lecture on the architecture of Homewood’s privy. Drawing from his highly regarded book Kitchens, Smokehouses, & Privies (Cornell University press, 2009) Olmert will discuss how Homewood’s privy compares to the outbuildings that can still be found at obscure rural farmsteads throughout the Tidewater and greater mid-Atlantic and explain how these well-made buildings actually functioned, their architecture, patterns of use, folklore, and even their literary presence. The talk will be followed by a reception with the speaker.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Olmert has been teaching Shakespeare and drama at the University of Maryland English Department for 37 years. He’s spoken frequently on the “The Invention of Colonial Williamsburg.” He’s written The Official Guide to Colonial Williamsburg (CWF, 1986-2016), The Smithsonian Book of Books (Smithsonian Institution, 1992), Milton’s Teeth & Ovid’s Umbrella (Simon & Schuster, 1996). His television writing has won three Primetime Emmys. He’s written 80 TV docs, as well as five books, seven plays, three feature films, an IMAX film, and over 200 articles, essays, and reviews. In 2005, he was inducted into the University of Maryland Alumni Hall of Fame.

SPONSORSHIP
Sponsorship of this lecture supports program costs and Homewood Museum’s Architectural Preservation Fund, which is used to maintain and improve the historic building. The current priority for the fund’s resources is restoration of Homewood’s north entrance stairs. Thank you to this year’s generous sponsors! If interested in becoming a supporter, please contact Dominique Zeltzman, Associate Director of Development for the JHU Museums, at dzeltzman@jhu.edu.

Premier

Henry Dugan and Caroline Griffin

Benefactor
C&H Restoration and Renovation

Forbes and Sara Maner
Eileen Perkins

Patron
Delbert Adams Construction Group

Lewis Contractors

Libby and Tim Naylor
Vincent Greene Architects

Fellow
Anonymous
Carroll Family Member
Mary and Greg Pinkard
SM + P Architects

Holiday Makers' Market
2023-11-18 11:00 - 15:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
Support local makers and get a head start on your holiday shopping at Evergreen’s Holiday Makers’ Market! This year’s market features a variety of locally made products including small batch coffee, jewelry, men’s grooming products, stationery, artwork, home decor, and much more.

PARTICIPATING VENDORS
(Subject to change)
Evergreen Museum & Library Gift Shop
Dear Globe Coffee Roasters
Five O Clock Co
Keppel & Kismet
Namascents
Niro Designs
The Pot Guy
Tigerlilly

VISITOR INFORMATION

Free parking available
Free self-guided tour of the gardens and grounds is included
Free admission to Art Glass at Evergreen included

Some Enchanted Evergreen
2023-12-09 11:00 - 14:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Tour Evergreen outfitted for the holidays! Guests can make their own Evergreen-inspired ornaments, take advantage of sales in the museum’s Gift Shop, listen to live music, and enjoy festive treats.
VISITOR INFORMATION

Due to the historical nature of the building, accessibility is limited, and some parts of the museum can only be reached via stairs.
Free parking is available

SPONSORSHIP
This event is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org)

Homewood for the Holidays
2023-12-10 11:00 - 14:00 | Homewood Museum, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Celebrate the season with Homewood! Tour the house’s decked halls and period rooms, hear live harp music, enjoy holiday goodies, and browse a special holiday market featuring local businesses. Vendors will include: Ashmo Jewelry and Accessories, Presence & Grace, Tigerlillyshop, Peanutbutter & Jesse, Naughty Naturals, and Yeht Co. Advance registration required: http://homewoodmuseum.eventbrite.com.
VISITOR INFORMATION

Due to the historical nature of the building, accessibility is limited, and many parts of the museum can only be reached via stairs.
Limited free parking is available. For more information on parking options at Homewood, click here.

SPONSORSHIP
This event is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org)

Free Admission February
2024-02-01 - 2024-02-29 | Homewood Museum, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
In honor of Black History Month, Homewood welcomes all visitors, free of charge, during the month of February. On a docent-led or self-guided tour, visitors can see the house’s period rooms and learn about the lives of Homewood’s first inhabitants, both free and enslaved.

HOURS
Access to the museum requires taking either a docent-led tour or a self-guided tour. Docent-led tours of Homewood are available Wednesday-Sunday from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., beginning on the half hour and last approximately 60 minutes. Self-guided tours are available depending upon staffing and have entry windows. To confirm daily tour availability, please call the museum at 410-516-5589.

Unwrapping Chocolate Secrets
2024-02-08 18:00 - 19:30 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
Learn all there is to know about chocolate, and then taste test some delicious samples! Learn about cacao, the fruit from which chocolate is made, how it was processed from the pre-industrial days to the modern-day, and how the the numerous variables in cultivation and processing effect chocolate’s taste, texture, and appearance. At each step in this chocolate discovery, participants will be given a wide assortment of samples to taste such as cacao nibs, 18th-century style spiced chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and a variety of dark chocolates made from different types of cacao.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joyce M. White is a food historian. She began in college in the late 1980s when she was a museum education intern at the Geneva Historical Society/Rose Hill Mansion in the Finger Lakes region of New York. She has a B.A. from William Smith College, an M.A. in American Studies from Penn State University, and has studied food history with leaders in the field at various historic sites in England and the U.S.

REGISTRATION

General Admission
$25.00

Friends of the JHU Museums
$20.00

J-Card Holders
$20.00

Please register HERE

Music at Evergreen: Sage DeAgro-Ruopp, soprano & Iwo Jedynecki, accordion
2024-02-11 14:00 - 16:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

A native of northern Michigan, DeAgro-Ruopp holds a performance diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory, as well as a bachelor’s and master’s from the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of Mark Schnaible. Her most recent roles include Johanna from Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Rosina from Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Outside of conventional operatic practices, she enjoys collaboration and involvement with contemporary composers and musicians, as well as composing for dance. Recently, she performed with Koresh Dance Company to rave reviews in their show Masquerade, where she composed the entirety of the score and sang her works live.
Classical accordionist Iwo Jedynecki is the winner of top prizes at over thirty international music competitions, and has performed in throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. He regularly collaborates and performs with other aritsts, including pianist Aleksander Krzyżanowski, accordionist Hubert Giziewski, and in a duo with Karolina Mikołajczyk, where a video of one of his violin-accordion transcriptions gained more than a million combined views on Facebook and YouTube. He received his doctoral degree in 2022 from The Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music Bydgoszcz in his native Poland. Upon receiving a Fulbright Scholarship this past fall, he began his studies as the first ever classical accordion Artist Diploma student at New York University.
The performance will be followed by a meet-and-greet reception with the artists. Space is limited space; advance tickets required.
Click here for Music at Evergreen season subscription tickets.

SPONSORSHIP
Music at Evergreen is made possible by the Evergreen House Foundation.

Music at Evergreen: Viano Quartet
2024-03-03 14:00 - 16:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet are one of the most sought-after performing young ensembles today. Since winning First Prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles.
The quartet is currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program from 2024-2027 and the Music in the Morning series in Vancouver until 2025, where their focus will be to commission new works and lead extensive community engagement initiatives. Previous residencies include the Curtis Institute, Colburn Conservatory, Northern Michigan University, and Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.
The performance will be followed by a meet-and-greet reception with the artists. Space is limited; advance tickets required.
Click here for Music at Evergreen subscription tickets.

CONCERT PROGRAM*
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 “Serioso”
Florence Price: “Andante moderato” from String Quartet No. 1 in G major
Krzysztof Penderecki: String Quartet No. 3 “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary”
INTERMISSION
Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet No. 1 in E minor “From My Life”
*program is subject to change at the artist’s discretion.

SPONSORSHIP
Music at Evergreen is made possible by the Evergreen House Foundation.

Girlhood in 1820s Baltimore
2024-03-07 17:00 - 18:00 | Homewood Museum, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
This presentation will reflect on the limitation of gender imposed on the lives of two girls in Baltimore City, Virginia Clemm Poe (born on August 15, 1822) and Frances E.W. Harper (born September 24, 1825). These two women born into working-class families lived separate realities in 1820s Baltimore. Yet, their worlds were profoundly shaped by gender norms that conscripted their worlds, choices, and trajectories. Looking at their lives contributes to the subfield of girlhood studies.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ida Jones serves as the Associate Director of Special Collections and University Archivist at Morgan State University. A noted professional archivist and historian, award-winning author, educator, and recognized leader in the field of African American women’s history. She is a member of the Baltimore City Historical Society and the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center. Her interest in Baltimore history is a growing interest since recently moving to the city.

REGISTRATION

Suggested Donation
$5.00

Friends of JHU Museums & JHU Students
FREE

Please register HERE

Oscar's Forgotten Best Picture
2024-03-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
Most trivia and film fans will know that Wings has the honor of being the first Winner of Best Picture. But did you know that there were two Best Picture categories for the 1st Academy Awards? Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won “Best Unique and Artistic Picture” that night as well. Enjoy popcorn as we watch this forgotten film and learn about its place in film history from Johns Hopkins film professor Linda DeLibero.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Linda DeLibero is Senior Lecturer and Special Advocate for Alumni and Outreach in the Film and Media Studies program at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches courses on film history and aesthetics, most recently Labyrinths of Passion: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar, Persistence of Vision: Time, Memory and History in Recent Global Cinema, and Teens on Screen. She was director of the program from 2001-17 and served as Co-Director of the JHU-MICA Film Centre from 2015-18. She received an MA in the Writing Seminars at JHU in 1989 and has published on film, media, and cultural studies since 1990 in a wide range of publications, including ASAP/Journal, Raritan, Book Forum, The Hopkins Review, The Village Voice, VLS, The Boston Review, In These Times, and Newsday. She also lectures widely on film and media culture, and her archived podcasts on film can be heard on Dan Rodricks’ Roughly Speaking on the Baltimore Sun website.

REGISTRATION

General Admission
$10.00

JHU Faculty & Staff
$5.00

Friends of the JHU Museums
FREE

JHU Students
FREE

Please register HERE

Applications Due for 2024 Pinkard-Bolton Internship
2024-03-15 17:00 | Homewood Museum, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
NAN PINKARD-AURELIA BOLTON INTERNSHIP
Homewood Museum / Deadline: March 15, 2024

Established in honor of Anne Merrick Pinkard by lead gifts from Aurelia Garland Bolton and Hershel L. Seder, and support from the France-Merrick Foundation. This internship celebrates the lifelong friendship of these two women, and their shared devotion to Homewood Museum.

SUMMER 2024 PROJECT
This internship will include a $1,500 stipend to be paid for approximately 100 hours of work over the course of 8 weeks during Summer 2024 at Homewood Museum ($15/hour). The selected candidate will work with the Curator of Collections to arrange a schedule that works best to complete these hours.
This summer, the Pinkard-Bolton intern will conduct original research on the history of Homewood Museum, with the goal of completing an online exhibition to present their research. Work will be supervised by the JHU Museums’ Curator of Collections and will potentially include research focused on enslaved and convict labor conducted when the property was under the ownership of Samuel Wyman during the mid-19th-century. Students will be expected to conduct research on site at Homewood and possibly at other archives in the Baltimore area. Over the course of the summer, the selected student will have opportunities to conduct archival research, practice writing for a general museum audience, and gain practical experience in day-to-day museum work.

ELIGIBILITY
All candidates must be enrolled as undergraduate students at the Johns Hopkins University and must have some relevant coursework in at least one of the following: American art, American architecture, American history, anthropology, material culture, education, or the Museums & Society Program. Information on Homewood Museum may be found online at https://museums.jhu.edu.

TO APPLY
Applicants should submit a resume or curriculum vitae, a reference letter from a professor or previous supervisor, as well as a letter of interest describing interests and relevant experience by Friday, March 15, 2024. All materials should be emailed to Curator of Collections Michelle Fitzgerald at mfitzg19@jhu.edu.

QUESTIONS
Interested Johns Hopkins undergraduate students are welcome to contact Michelle Fitzgerald at mfitzg19@jhu.edu.

Dufy & Dutch Courage Happy Hour
2024-04-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
To toast the re-installation of eight works by French artist Raoul Dufy, Evergreen welcomes art historian Jennifer Wester, Ph.D., who will present an overview on Dufy and the Fauvism movement, followed by an opportunity to view the artwork and enjoy French-inspired cocktails from Dutch Courage.
Photo: Untitled work, Raoul Dufy (1877-1953); c. 1936, France, watercolor and pencil on paper, Evergreen House Foundation EH1952.1.187. Bequest of Alice Warder Garrett.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jennifer Wester, Ph.D. (she/her) is the Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity (URSCA), and an Associate Research Scholar in the Department of the History of Art. Appointed in 2023, she oversees the awarding of undergraduate research grants, the convening of the annual Macksey Symposium, and the implementation of the summer research programs for visiting undergraduates. She also leads the Mellon Humanities Collaboratory. Wester holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A., summa cum laude, in the History of Art and French from Middlebury College. Prior to joining URSCA, she was Associate Professor of Art History at Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she also served as the director of campus art galleries.

REGISTRATION

Cocktails
$35.00

Cocktails, Friends of JHU Museums
$30.00

Spirit-Free Cocktails
$25.00

Spirit-Free Cocktails, Friends of JHU Museums
$20.00

Please register HERE

Ghost Rivers Walking Tour
2024-04-25 12:00 - 13:00 | Wyman Park Dell, 2929 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
Ghost Rivers is a neighborhood-spanning, multi-site public art installation and walking tour by artist Bruce WIllen that visualizes a lost stream buried below the streets of Baltimore. Through a series of installations, wayfinding markers, and writings, Ghost Rivers reveals a hidden path of the creek Sumwalt Run, bringing its lost landscapes and histories to the surface.
Important Information

Tour check-in will be at the small building near the 31st Street entrance.
Tour will take approximately 1 hour and cover up to 1.5 miles.
Please dress according to the weather and wear comfortable shoes.
Rain date is Friday, April 26 at 12 p.m. You will be contacted via email if the tour needs to be rescheduled to the rain date.

REGISTRATION

General Admission
$10.00

J-Card Holder
$7.00

Friends of JHU Museums
$7.00

Please register HERE

Jazz on the Terrace: To Bop or Not to Bop
2024-05-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
Jazz scholar Anna Celenza, Ph.D., will present a program exploring the roll of jazz in U.S. society during the 1950s and ’60s with relevant musical selections performed by the Hannah Mayer Quintet. The performance will be followed by an alfresco reception with the performers.

REGISTRATION

General Admission
$20.00

Friends of the JHU Museums
$15.00

JHU Faculty, Staff & Alumni
$15.00

Full-time JHU Students
$10.00

Please register HERE

Papercutting Workshop with Annie Howe
2024-06-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Evergreen Museum & Library, 4545 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
Master papercut artist Annie Howe teaches the basic technique of papercutting in this hands-on workshop. Participants will work towards completing at least one finished papercut design and will gain the know-how to continue papercutting at home.
The workshop begins with an introduction to Annie’s work and an in-depth demonstration of the techniques used to create custom papercuts. Anne provides beautifully designed templates for participants to use as a starting point for their papercuts. The remaining workshop time allows for students to create their own spectacular designs with Annie’s guidance.

REGISTRATION

General Admission
$30.00

Friends of JHU Museums
$25.00

J-Card Holders
$25.00

Please register HERE

Benjamin Banneker & Us Book Talk
2024-06-18 17:30 - 18:30 | Homewood Museum, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD, 21218, United States
In 1791, Thomas Jefferson hired a Black man to help survey Washington, D.C. That man was Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician, a writer of almanacs, and one of the greatest astronomers of his generation. Banneker then wrote what would become a famous letter to Jefferson, imploring the new president to examine his hypocrisy, as someone who claimed to love liberty yet was an enslaver. More than two centuries later, Rachel Jamison Webster, an ostensibly white woman, learns that this groundbreaking Black forefather is also her distant relative.
Acting as a storyteller, Webster draws on oral history and conversations with her DNA cousins to imagine the lives of their shared ancestors across eleven generations, among them Banneker’s grandparents, an interracial couple who broke the law to marry when America was still a conglomerate of colonies under British rule. These stories shed light on the legal construction of race and display the brilliance and resistance of early African Americans in the face of increasingly unjust laws, some of which are still in effect today.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rachel Jamison Webster is a Professor of Creative Writing in the English Department of Northwestern University and the author of Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family, a book of creative nonfiction that explores ancestry, race, gender, and justice in American history. The book was chosen as a Best Book of 2023 by The New Yorker and was called “excellent and thought-provoking” by the New York Times Book Review. Rachel embarked on a collaborative process in the writing of this book, as she and her DNA cousins discussed racial justice, genealogy, and the stories of their ancestors, which include the African American surveyor and astronomer, Benjamin Banneker. Rachel has also published four books of poetry and hybrid writing, including, Mary is a River, which was a finalist for the 2014 National Poetry Series; September: Poems; The Endless Unbegun; and The Sea Came Up & Drowned, which combines erasure poems and Rachel’s collage artwork to meditate on our extractive economy and fractured relationship to the Earth. Rachel’s poems and essays often appear in anthologies and journals, including Poetry, Lit Hub, and The Yale Review.

REGISTRATION

Suggested Donation
$5.00

JHU Students
FREE

Friends of JHU Museums
FREE

Please register HERE

Lunch with the Libraries & Museums: Leave No Trace - John Work Garrett's Trip to the American West
2024-08-01 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual Event, MD, United States
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Join JHU Museums’ Curator of Collections Michelle Fitzgerald for a special preview talk on Evergreen’s fall exhibition Leave No Trace: John Work Garrett in the American Outdoors. This virtual lunchtime talk is free and open to all, but advanced registration is required.

ABOUT LEAVE NO TRACE
When Evergreen resident John Work Garrett made his first trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1894 as the student ornithologist participating in one of the late-19th century Princeton Geological Expeditions, he would have been one of the earliest white tourists to enter the nation’s first national park. For the future diplomat, the trip was only the start in a lifetime of love for the American outdoors. He made sure to remember the trip through preserving his journals and photographs taken on the trip which offer a rare, personal glimpse into the outdoor recreational experience of late-19th-century Americans. Through Garrett’s photographs and souvenirs, “Leave No Trace” will examine the historic and present-day relationships that Americans have to the great outdoors.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michelle Fitzgerald is the Curator of Collections at the Johns Hopkins University Museums. With an interest in Chesapeake furniture in the 18th and 19th centuries, she has previously held positions at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Maryland Center for History and Culture, and the Maryland State Archives. She received her MA from the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and is published in the University of Chicago Press’ Winterthur Portfolio and AASLH’s History News magazine.
