Who Built the City on the Severn? Slavery and Craft in Early Annapolis

EVENTS > SPECIAL PROGRAMS

For the September Trust Talk, Bethany J. McGlyn, Sewell C. Biggs Curatorial Fellow at Winterthur Museum, will be joined in conversation with Tiffany Momon, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor at Sewanee and co-founder of the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive. They will discuss Bethany’s research on decorative arts, material culture, and Black craftspeople in early Annapolis, MD.

Enslaved artisans’ skill and expertise were essential to the creation of Annapolis’s Georgian mansions, furnishings, artworks, and even the Maryland State House. Despite working for and with the city’s most famous white craftsmen—most notably Charles Willson Peale, William Buckland, John Shaw, and William Faris—enslaved artisans are often left out of studies of craft in early Annapolis. Join us as Bethany shares new research that aims to bring the work of enslaved artisans into the story of American decorative arts.

Trust Talks is a monthly lecture series hosted by the Decorative Arts Trust that features emerging scholars sharing and discussing their exciting new research with a mentor in the field. The hour-long virtual program includes a lecture, scholar-to-scholar conversation, and Q&A with the program participants.

All donations made in conjunction with registration for Trust Talks will support the Emerging Scholars Program.

This program is supported by the Marie and John Zimmermann Fund.

Registration Fee: Pay What You Can

Watch the program recording on YouTube. If you like this program video, subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications when we post new videos

Read the Bulletin post about the program.

Read a related article in The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust. 

Read more about Bethany’s research in this Bulletin post.