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Curatorial talk: Black Founders and Archives
October 4, 2023 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
The documents held in archives like HSP not only provide valuable information for researchers, the objects themselves often become valuable storytelling tools in museum exhibitions. Matthew Skic, Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of the American Revolution, will share the research and discoveries behind the Museum’s special exhibit Black Founders: The Forten Family of Philadelphia. The exhibition brings together – for the first time – more than 100 historical artifacts and documents to tell the inspiring story of free Black Philadelphian James Forten and his remarkable family as they battled slavery and defended freedom from the Revolutionary era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The exhibition runs through November 26 at the Museum of the American Revolution.
This talk will be held onsite at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street in Philadelphia, and will also be livestreamed via Zoom webinar.
Matthew Skic is a contributing author to Two Hundred Years: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1824-2024. Published in conjunction with HSP’s anniversary, it is the first book to survey the more than twenty-one million documents, newspapers, graphics, and rare books in its archive. The book presents one hundred essays highlighting carefully preserved artifacts, spanning the seventeenth to the late twentieth century; it will be available for purchase in early fall 2023.
Speaker’s Bio:
Matthew Skic joined the curatorial staff at the Museum of the American Revolution in June 2016 after graduating from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware. Since the Museum’s opening in 2017, he has curated multiple award-winning exhibitions, including Hamilton Was Here: Rising Up in Revolutionary Philadelphia and Cost of Revolution: The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1824, is one of the nation’s largest archives of historical documents. We are proud to serve as Philadelphia’s Library of American History, with over 21 million manuscripts, books, and graphic images encompassing centuries of US history. Through educator workshops, research opportunities, public programs, and lectures throughout the year, we strive to make history relevant and exhilarating to all. For more information, visit hsp.org.