Our afternoon conversation will explore and discuss how president ial sites and museums can be more inclusive through site interpretation and programing, community and descendant engagement and exhibits. The concept seems simple enough. Tell the full story. But storytelling, much like history itself, can be complicated, complex and contradictory. These speakers and their respective sites have all encountered different challenges while seeking to tell the full story. But theyve also experienced access, encouragement and praise for embracing and sharing the entirety of the american experience. Our moderator for this discussion is felicia bell Senior Advisor to the director at the Smithsonian National museum of American History, joe. Joining her on stage is meredith evans, who is director of the jimmy carter president ial library and museum. Sara bonharper executive director of James Monroes highland. Kate lemay, curator and historian for the National Portrait gallery. And Gayle Jessup WhitePublic Relations and Community Engagement officer at monticello. And the Thomas Jefferson foundation. Please join me in welcoming our panelists. Like. Well, good afternoon. Oh, its so good to see you. Oh, i see. We have after lunch. Crowd oh, right. Very good. Well, were excited to be here this afternoon to talk about president sites and various forms and formats and how we interpret history at these sites in an inclusive way. And in a way that sheds light on how these president s have been successful and have had tremendous impact on our nation, but how they have also harmed others in the process. So let us begin our conversation on this afternoon with gail. If you could share with us a little bit about yourself often you are actually a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and the hemings family, and youve written a wonderful book called reclamation, which which i have with me. Yes. And tell us about how has your journey in reclaiming your heritage, as well as the journeys of other descendants, elevate it and enhance the Visitor Experience at monticello . Thank you for that question. And first of all, i have to tell you how thrilled i am to be here. And one of the reasons im so thrilled to be here is because my grandfather was a chef at the white house during the wilson administration. Theres not that much about him available. So one of the reasons im here to correct the record, we will be learning about ice cream in the near future and my second book as for montello, we have at monticello, and i feel that were a leader in this and my colleagues are here. I would like to recognize them before we go on. Gardiner halleck is our interim president , and i see andrew in a way, who is directing our library. And steven might might be here, but if hes not, thats okay. Steven is our interim Vice President , so i feel buoyed by having so much support by having my colleagues here and also knowing that theyll correct me if i Say Something thats not right amount of cello. We have something called the jenny word africanamerican oral history project. And that project since 1993 has collected the oral history of descendants of the slave communities traveling thousands of miles, founded by a woman who became my mentor. Her name is senator stanton and the late diane swan. Right. And as a result of that, we have an extraordinary collection of stories about those people who were enslaved at monticello and those people who helped build not just monticello, but who helped build democracy in this country. And these are the stories we tell about the individuals who contributed to that process, who contributed to making this country what it is and holding the aspirations of Thomas Jefferson. I would like to say that all people were created equal. Of course, he did not write that in the declaration, but holding that aspiration and bringing that aspiration to life for all of us. And when you come to mind, a cello, you will not just hear about Thomas Jefferson, but you will hear about the people he enslaved, including members of my family and what they did to make this country great and in so doing, when we see ourselves in history, it makes us better citizens. It makes us participants. And that democracy, which id like to add and we all know, is at risk now. And if i may say one more thing, while i have my museum remain among the most trusted institutions in the country, so what better place than the current institutions such as ours to hear the truth and to be inspired to participate in democracy . So its incumbent of all of us to tell these inclusive stories that really do matter. And one last thing. Why am i here . Why am i marcelo . Why does my voice matter . I am the First Descendant of the enslaved and the enslaver to work at monticello and to be paid for it. Thomas. That is fantastic. And thats thats actually thats thats awesome. I like that i want to stay on this descendants story and turn to you. Sara, and tell us about the descendants advice. Sorry, the council of descendants and descendant advisors at James Monroes highland. And tell us about the work youre doing there with descendants. Yeah, thank you for that. And thank you for the opportunity to be here and to share the stage with with this group. So, James Monroes highland in recent years has been undergoing really robust change, starting with our discoveries and Research Announcements a few years ago that the house that monroe had built and lived in had burned entirely, and the standing house had been misidentified. And so this great archeological story, architectural history and dendrochronology or tree ring dating snarled this long lasting, forgotten story. And so that really set the stage for change and in fact, for reexamine meaning all our histories and populating the site with new and most relevant stories. For now. Right . I think of this as 21st century history, which includes many more voices than previously. So we set out to think about how do we choose the stories . How do we decide whose voices are heard and through a longer process than im making it, we have developed a council of descendant advisors and these individuals chased trace their ancestors to highland either before, either during slavery or after the civil war, and then this body of individuals who range in age from early twenties to in their eighties advise us and our collaborative partners. Importantly, in a couple of different areas. One is in in ident notifying and and frame naming and sharing the histories that we tell. And then really significantly in carrying out activities that i would not have thought of as a centrally Museum Activities, but are generated by a Wider Community for whom is very meaningful. An example is our annual descendants day. Right. I gather of people not just with connections to highland, but throughout the region and even beyond another is a very important trip to florida in 1828. The the enslaved community at highland was ruptured by sale and a group of of women, men and children were sold to jefferson county, florida, near monticello, florida. There there, those who stayed there formed a church after the civil war and their descendants are active today and are now our collaborators. And a group of girls went to meet with them. So these are activities that arent traditional music activities that are are are very important and essential are Museum Activities that are ideas generated by the council of the senate and advisors. And we carry them out in conjunction. We do that work with them. Theres collaboration on on making them happen. And so really changing what a museum is and what a museum does because of these collaborations. Absolutely. And just to just expand on that a little bit, im interested in descendants day and is that just for the descendants or how were you expanding this work youre doing with the descendants to your visitors, to the right and that that would be the part where i think i need to probably back up a minute and say when we first started meeting, we had, you know, the big flip charts and taking notes and saying, what are your goals . What would you like to see done . What is most important to you . My goals were things like how do we tell Better Stories in our new exhibit panels . How do we share more truthful histories in our spoken history . Walks, you know, and we have their input on all of those. We call it content theme and tone. So we unrolled a round of new exhibitions a couple of years ago. The next set is coming out this fall and those are chosen within put on content, theme and tone. What are we saying . What are the most important threads that were carrying through and what is the language . What is the feeling we want to convey . So thats the key part. Thats what i thought we would want to do together, because of course it was my goal as a Museum Director to do this. The descendant group at that point said we also want to have a day when descendants come back to highland to be together to promote healing, to offer fellowship for other descendant communities who are on the same path, and other people in our community and beyond who are interested and supportive. This is very inclusive. It is not at all limited by membership to anything. Anyone who is committed to the same work or even interested in the same work is invited. So there is the idea that a museum goes trotting along, thinking, okay, what am i going to do . Im going to give tours, im going to put up exhibit panels, im going to have some programs, and then another body says and were going to do these things in our community that have to do with healing, that have to do with whole. This in a community that have to do with a group of people who are not necessarily lee core Museum Visitors and so important and it sounds like youve had success with it thanks to a very generous Descendants Council generous of spirit and of time. Good good. So weve talked about how descendants have had effect on storied telling at at our site. So i want to turn to objects and how they help us with storytelling as well. And kate, if you would, i just want to talk a little bit about your exhibition that you have cocurated with Tina Kerrigan called 1898 us imperial visions and revisions and it is the smithsonians first major exhibition to examine us imperialism and the war of 1898, or the spanish cuban american filipino war and it also marks the 125th anniversary of the year that the us acquired overseas territories. It features over 90 objects. So you and i know were working very hard again and so tell us a bit about why it was important for you and time to use portraiture and other visual, other objects to tell this story and to tell the story of those who advocated for overseas expansion, opposed it and resisted it. Thank you for the question. The National Portrait gallery endeavors to tell the history of the United States through biography and therefore through portraiture. And for us, the sweet spot is when you have a really good art and youre engaging in a kind of a biography thats capturing people. So we bookend our exhibition with a portrait of William Mckinley, and then we end that. The exhibition so begins with mckinley and ends with Theodore Roosevelt, painted by john singer, sergeant so what is interesting to me as an art historian is not only the subject that is being portrayed, but also the artist and what theyre bringing to the table. Because the mckinley portrait is made by francisco, roger was the preeminent puerto rican painter who was the Court Painter for spain, and during the war of 1898, hes like trying to figure out what is going to happen to his job. So he starts to paint William Mckinley from a photograph and offers it to mckinley. Mckinley declines because the portrait is not super favorable to mckinley as a likeness. The sergeant portrait of Theodore Roosevelt is much better in terms of flattery. So what is fun and interesting for us, and i think very important as a historian, is to have art broker a bridge through time with our more than 2 million visitors who might not know this history. They might not understand that the United States acquire puerto rico, the philippines and guam and cuba. For a brief time in 1898. And that summer, they also annexed hawaii or hawaii as we know it. Another portrait that we have on view is that of queen lili lani, which is the portrait by William Cogswell that usually hangs in the illinois palace in honolulu. And we were able to facilitate a very important loan because her voice is so important, and shes a major sight line in the exhibition. And not many people understand that the United States, under mckinleys presidency annexed hawaii through a joint resolution, which is not your normal path to a treaty for annexation. Normally you pass a treaty through the house vote and then the senate votes, and then you come together that way. Instead, they took a total vote against native hawaiian resistance. I mean, they really were not interested in being a part of the United States. They signed petitions against annexation. So were telling this story of opposition to american expansion, as well as the point of view of these two president s and i think that the objects help us understand really the the humanity behind all of this. And the fact that native hawaiians sent a delegation when we opened the exhibition, which is on view, ten blocks from here. So i hope that you all get to go and see it. And we also have a major book that we published with Princeton University press that is out, but it was really satisfying and very moving for me as a curator to welcome a delegation of native hawaiians who sang a blessing for the queen to open her into this, to welcome her into the space. Its really interesting to see how different people have different reactions to this history and continue to this day trying to understand its all its nuances and portraiture really brings those different points of view together, which is important for us. Absolute. So youre not a president ial site physically in terms of a place where a president live, but i believe you told me that the museum has the largest outside of the white house, the largest collection of american, a great place to learn American History, because we have the full set of portraits of every single president. We had to borrow a portrait of eisenhower from the truman library, actually, because the portrait that the portrait gallery owns is of him in his uniform from world war two. And you do not want to have the wrong idea. The United States is not a dictatorship. Right . So we needed a portrait of eisenhower in a businessman dress. And anyway, its a its a great collection. And how long is the exhibition on view . Its on view through february of 2024. So we we have time to go see it. Good. Thank you for that. Thank you. Sarah, i want to turn back to you again and when were talking about objects again and and how they help us tell stories about president s and president ial sites and you have used public archeology as a means to that, to open the door for visitors to explore and tell us more about how you use that to expand the stories of your site. Absolutely. So i think we start with the idea that the acknowledgment that as public historians for generations, we have shared, produced and shared certain narratives. Right. We have told specific stories, often limited, who we who we talk about and what we say about them and whats contested now, of course, is the expansion or the addition. And that is difficult all around. And i think i need to acknowledge the role of public historians for generations having been successful at feeding those narratives and now people feeling like were yanking the rug out from under them. We have to say our profession had a role in creating these stories. Our profession has a role in figuring out effective ways to expand and the narrative here, right . So thats where i start from. And so we think about how are we best going to reach people to get them to imagine changing stories or additions to stories in ways that they feel receptive to and that theyre open to learning . As thats one of the ways we start out with a success full learning relationship. I find that archeology is a way to do that for whatever reason, you can hold a small object in your hand and say, look what we found. Look, this changes what we know. This tells us something specific about a person or a date or an activity, and that somehow is less fraught than some of the other changes that we try to make. And so i really try to embody that space and invite people in to discuss what were doing when were doing archeology, to look over our shoulders is to constantly say, this is what we found and look how that changes what we can say about this place in particular, when were talking about the lost and now rediscovered covered president ial house at highland, we can say and in this house we can think about all the people who lived and worked here. There was for example, hannah, an enslaved cook, and she and her three youngest children, all boys between the ages of one and seven. Theyre just the youngest of her children. They moved there with her monroe family. And so we chose to excavate as close as we could get to where we thought the kitchen was. And we would simply say to our visitors, were excavating over here so we can talk to you about hannah and her family, these young boys, hannah worked in this space. They all probably lived in this space and just started the conversation like that and all of a sudden