“On the Path to Freedom,”was a community heritage program commemorating Territorial Kansans involvement in the Underground Railroad. The two day program in Topeka, July 25 and 26, 2008, focused on an article Rev Lewis Bodwell, Topeka Congregational Church, published on his escorting a family of fugitive slaves in 1858 from the Landmark Ritchie House in Topeka to southwest Iowa for transmission along the Underground Railroad.
July 25, 2008
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
7:00 PM
Reception courtesy of Security Benefit
Exhibiting the Underground Railroad
Photography of Stephen Marc, Arizona State University
Historically Mapping the Paths to Freedom
Stephen Marc is a Professor of Art at Arizona State University,
whose work as a photographer/digital montage artist addresses
the African Diaspora. Since 2000, Marc has traveled to over
30 states and Ontario, Canada to visit Underground Railroad
sites, Antebellum plantations, and to research slavery related
materials. As a result of these experiences, he has created two
types of images. The first is documentations of individual
UGRR sites incorporating several views, often inside/out,
in order to provide an interpretative tour. The second type is
constructed narrative montage that address the larger scope of
slavery by weaving together historical locations, documents,
and artifacts, with pertinent contemporary cultural references.
The book of this work, Passage on the Underground Railroad,
is being published by the University Press of Mississippi with a
scheduled release in Fall 2008.
Lecture by Spencer Crew, George Mason University
Spencer R. Crew is a Professor of American, African
American, and Public History at George Mason University.
Spencer Crew has worked in public history institutions for
more than twenty-five years. He served as president of the
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for six years
and worked at the National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution for twenty years. Nine of those
years he served as the director of NMAH. At each of those
institutions he sought to make history accessible to the public
through innovative and inclusive exhibitions and public
programs.
His most important exhibition was the ground breaking
“Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration 1915 – 1940”
which generated a national discussion about migration, race,
and creating historical exhibitions. He also co-curated “The
American Presidency A Glorious Burden” which is one of the
Smithsonian’s most popular exhibitions. Crew has published
extensively in the areas of African American and Public
History.
Crew is an active member of the academic and cultural
communities, serving on many boards that work to generate
enthusiasm for history among the general public. He is the past
chair of the National Council for History Education and serves
on the Board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation as
well as the Board of the American Association of Museums.
He graduated from Brown University and holds a master’s
degree and a doctorate from Rutgers University. In 2003 he
was inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni.
Professor Crew’s participation is as the 2008 Washburn
University Gleed Lecturer.
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