October 2026
Experiencing Independence in a Vanished House: Eyewitness Accounts from Mt. Pleasant, New York
This paper examines Mt. Pleasant in New York, an estate where a crossroads of voices existed during the American Revolution. Due to the demolition of the house one hundred years later, the house and its inhabitants—a gardener and his wife, British Generals James Howe and Henry Clinton, prisoners-of-war the Baron and “Mrs. General” Fredericke Reidesel and their family from Germany, General George Washington, Captain Nathan Hale and Major John André, among others—and the things they experienced there, have not received…
Details »November 2026
New Netherland and the World
Global Encounters in a Dutch American Estate: Reimagining Mount Pleasant This paper examines Mount Pleasant in New York as a site shaped by the enduring influence of Dutch-descended families in the Hudson River Valley, with particular focus on the Beekman family and their estate along the East River. Although the house no longer survives, its architectural features, cultivated landscape, and patterns of use reflect the persistence and adaptation of Dutch cultural traditions into the eighteenth century. The design of the…
Details »Inclusive Monuments in a Founding Landscape: Public Art, Interpretation, and the Afterlives of Declaration House
This presentation examines Declaration House, a 2024 public art and history exhibition presented by Monument Lab at Declaration House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Located within Independence National Historical Park, the site marks the spot where Thomas Jefferson drafted the United States Declaration of Independence, with his enslaved servant, Robert Hemings, present. The exhibition sought to reframe this foundational location and national narrative by centering Hemmings’ presence—and that of his descendants. The project premiered Sonya Clark’s installation The Descendants of Monticello, a…
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