Richard Rabinowitz, an early organizer of and principal consultant to the proposed National Underground Railroad and Freedom Center in Cincinnati, will present a lecture, "The Empty Gallery: Why American Museums Can't Interpret the History of Slavery," at Hamilton College on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 4:15 p.m. in the Red Pit. The lecture, sponsored by the history department and the Levitt Public Affairs Center, is free and open to the public.
Dr. Rabinowitz, founder and president of American History Workshop in New York City, has been working in the field of public history since the late 1960s and has designed and supervised numerous exhibits reckoning with American history. Rabinowitz has most recently been selected by Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston, SC to design all the exhibits for an extensively conceived museum there dedicated to characterizing and interpreting the history of slavery in the Carolina Low country and, more broadly, in the nation as a whole. This museum will be an ambitious and pioneering undertaking for there is no museum in the nation organized to explain for the public the history, character, and significance of this institution, arguably the single most important force in the shaping of American history and society.
Dr. Rabinowitz will address the question, Why we lack such a museum now?, from several perspectives--autobiographically, historiographically, and sociologically. He will also address the problems with building inter-racial coalitions and consensus around such an endeavor, control of conceptualizing of the museum, and why such a museum is becoming possible now.
