Philly Declaration House exhibit offers ‘a window into understanding’ the struggles for freedom in the United States

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A new art exhibit at the Declaration House features descendants of Robert Hemmings, an enslaved servant of Thomas Jefferson.

Sonya Clark’s “The Descendants of Monticello” is prominently displayed through the windows of the home where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. The exhibit features videos of the blinking eyes of descendants of Hemmings and others related to the more than 400 people enslaved at Monticello, Jefferson’s home and plantation in Virginia.

The exhibit focuses on the juxtaposition of slavery and freedom as the declaration was being drafted and its connection to the present day. Monument Lab senior curator Yolanda Wisher said as the team was researching Hemmings, they found many “gaps and erasures” in his history.

“Sonya Clark’s intervention in that erasure and the kind of missing note that Robert Hemmings kind of strikes in this larger history of the Declaration of Independence is a really brilliant intervention that only artists can make,” Wisher said. “Artists do this kind of dreaming that connects the past to the present to the future in this way that reminds us that the past is never the past. It’s always with us.”

The project was unveiled during a block party Monday on Seventh Street outside the Declaration House. J. Calvin Jefferson Sr. is a descendant of three enslaved families at Monticello and said he hopes people witnessing the exhibit can think about what would have been through Hemmings’ head back in 1776.

“Robert Hemmings being up here, being enslaved … and how he’s witnessing Thomas Jefferson developing the Declaration of Independence with ‘all men are equal,’” Jefferson Sr. said. “That in itself and he wasn’t equal.”

Jefferson Sr. connected the struggles of freedom then to the present day, specifically legislation developing over time.

“In the beginning, it didn’t include poor whites, it didn’t include Black folks, it didn’t include Native Americans and it didn’t include women,” Jefferson Sr. said. “Over those years, amendments to the Constitution have included everybody. So if we don’t be careful, all of that is going to go.”

Monument Lab director Paul Farber said the project aims to paint a fuller picture of Jefferson’s and Hemmings’ time at the Declaration House where “the stories of freedom and enslavement are entangled together.”

“That’s not just about the past, that’s actually a window into understanding where we are today,” Farber said. “Better understanding around that will lead to healing, but also we have to make room for the fuller history to live and breathe.”

The exhibit will be on display through Sept. 8. During weekends at Declaration House, visitors are invited to respond to the project’s central question with hand-drawn responses: What does the Declaration of Independence mean to us today? Those will be collected by Monument Lab and shared with Independence National Historical Park as they develop future programming ahead of America’s Semiquincentennial in 2026.

The block party was a part of the Wawa Welcome America Festival that will run through July 4.

Editor’s Note: WHYY was one of the hosts of Monday’s block party. Paul Farber was the host of The Statue, a podcast series produced by WHYY Digital Studios in 2023.