The Dinah Project wins award

‘How did freedom feel?’

A US project honouring an enslaved housekeeper of a Quaker family has won a prestigious award.

The Dinah Memorial Project set up at Stenton Museum in Pennsylvania has received an Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). 

A year after she was emancipated and employed as paid staff, Dinah saved the house from being burnt down by British soldiers in 1777. The museum paid tribute to her by setting up a memorial project more than five years ago. 

Stenton House was the colonial mansion of the Quaker Logan family, and built around 1730 by James Logan, secretary to William Penn. 

‘“Inequality in Bronze: Monumental Plantation Legacies” was a public history and engagement project that wrestled with how to memorialise and elevate the story of Dinah, who was enslaved at Stenton and gained her freedom,’ reads the Stenton e-newsletter. The project ‘enhanced Stenton’s ability to tell stories that are meaningful to residents of our neighborhood, and for the first time, engage in shared authority with our community’.

A memorial by sculptor Karyn Olivier was officially unveiled earlier this year in April, when hundreds gathered at Stenton to celebrate. Karyn Olivier’s ‘Dinah’ design was chosen from among three finalists in 2019. Intended to both inform and challenge its visitors, the winning ‘contemplative space’ features a fountain encircled by two benches (see image). 

Aimed at provoking rumination on the mysterious, dehumanising lack of detail surrounding Dinah’s life, the monument poses questions engraved on two limestone pillars: ‘Where were you born? How did you get here? What was your greatest sorrow? How did freedom feel?’

The Award of Excellence is part of the AASLH Leadership in History Awards, the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation of state and local history.

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