The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), owned by The Smithsonian Institution, has been given a big gift. The Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society donated to the institution a slave cabin on South Carolina’s Edisto Island from the first half of the 19th century.
“We are thrilled to be able to share an important part of Edisto Island’s rich history with the millions of visitors who will visit this new museum,” the director of Edisto Island Historical Preservation Society, Gretchen Smith said. “This is a story that needs to be told, and we know the Smithsonian will do a wonderful job of telling it.”
“The Point of Pines slave cabin will help us share the living history of a place and the resilience of the people, who, in the darkest days of slavery, built the cabin, cleared the land, worked in the fields and raised their families there,” said Nancy Bercaw, the NMAAHC’s curator. “The cabin will be one of the jewels of the museum positioned at its center to tell the story of slavery and freedom within its walls.”
To show the work at a NMAAHC’s exhibition in the future, the cabin is being taken apart board by board. The institution plans on holding a show entitled “Slavery and Freedom” when it hits the art scene in 2015.
[via Artinfo]
