Witness Stones Project, Inc.

Restore History, Educate, and Honor Humanity

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Historic Deerfield Looks to Shine Light on Untold History with Memorial Plaques

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Pat Wilson Pheanious, co-chair of the Witness Stones Project’s board of directors, speaks to her involvement with the memorial markers installed in Old Deerfield that commemorate people who were enslaved there. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

By Chris Larabee in the Greenfield Recorder on October 12, 2022

DEERFIELD — Up and down Old Main Street, houses from the Colonial era still stand, now turned into educational opportunities by Historic Deerfield in an effort to share the town’s rich history.

That history, however, didn’t always consist of the full representation, until Wednesday morning.

In partnership with the Witness Stones Project, Historic Deerfield unveiled 19 bronze memorial plaques outside 12 houses to commemorate the enslaved men, women and children whose stories are often untold or buried by the sands of time. By the mid-18th century, enslaved people lived in more than one-third of the houses on Old Main Street. Continue reading.

Historic Deerfield Unveils Witness Stones

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By Richard Damas on Spectrum News 1 on October 12, 2022

DEERFIELD, Mass. – Historic Deerfield paid tribute to American history Wednesday by unveiling memorials around the museum to the enslaved individuals who once lived in the area.

Historic Deerfield partnered with The Witness Stones Project and revealed 19 memorial plaques at 12 locations around the museum’s mile-long street.

According to the museum, around one-third of the individuals who once lived in the area were enslaved, and the plaques have the names of the individuals who they could find information on.

Witness Stones Board of Directors member Pat Wilson Pheanious is one of the descendant​s of the enslaved families and said growing up in New England, much of the history around slavery was hidden from her. Continue reading.

Historic Deerfield Unveils Witness Stones

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By Emma McCorkindale and Heath Kalb on WWLP on October 12, 2022

DEERFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Historic Deerfield unveiled 19 memorial plaques at 12 different locations on Wednesday.

Historic Deerfield, in partnership with Witness Stones Project, unveiled 19 memorial plaques along the museum’s mile-long street. Inspired by the Stolpersteine Project in Germany which commemorates victims of the Holocaust, this project’s purpose was to further acknowledge and recognize those that were enslaved. The Witness Stones memorial is a 4 by 4 brass plaque identifying the enslaved person where they lived and worked. Continue reading.

 

Historic Deerfield Partners with Witness Stone Project to Unveil Memorials Honoring Enslaved Persons

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(Deerfield, M.A.) – Historic Deerfield, in partnership with The Witness Stones Project™, will be unveiling 19 memorial plaques at 12 locations along the museum’s mile-long street. The plaques honor enslaved persons who once lived in the historic homes that make up the Historic Deerfield Museum. The ceremony will take place on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at 10:30 a.m. at 128 Old Main Street, Deerfield, Massachusetts.

The general public and media are invited to the unveiling ceremony.

 

WSP Affiliate Historic Deerfield to Celebrate Juneteenth Through Song

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Performers at Sunday’s Juneteenth concert will include La’Shelle Allen, Eric Brown, Kathy Bullock, Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore, Tim Eriksen and the Pioneer Valley Shapenote Singers, and Christella Philippe.

By Chris Larabee in the Greenfield Recorder on June 16, 2022

DEERFIELD — Historic Deerfield is inviting residents to celebrate Juneteenth and learn about local ties to abolition through song on Sunday.

The museum is hosting “Songs of Abolition: A Juneteenth Concert Celebration at Historic Deerfield” to commemorate Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans in Texas were emancipated. The concert will feature 19th-century songs about abolition, early gospel tunes and music from a new documentary titled “Songs of Slavery and Emancipation.” Continue reading.

WSP Looks Forward to Working with New Historic Deerfield President

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The Greenfield Recorder on September 27, 2021

Jeff Davis

 

DEERFIELD — Historic Deerfield welcomed John Davis, the museum’s new president and CEO, earlier this month as he begins his job after being hired in May.

Davis, the former provost and undersecretary for museums, education and research at the Smithsonian Institution, said in a press release that he is ready to help Historic Deerfield move forward in the 21st century. Continue reading.

Historic Deerfield Joins Witness Stones Project

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Historic Deerfield

The Witness Stones Project, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities, today announced a new affiliation with Historic Deerfield. The museum will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their teaching of the history of slavery in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

The education programs at Historic Deerfield are based on the belief that experiencing authentic objects is a powerful instrument of learning. The Witness Stones Project will be a complementary addition to those programs. Educators and students will explore how to use historic documents to understand the history of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. The collaboration will include professional development for classroom teachers and museum educators and public programming. It will be launched in autumn 2021.

The Witness Stones Project was founded in 2017 in Guilford, Connecticut. Since then, the Project has expanded to work with affiliated institutions in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.

Historic Deerfield is a museum of early American life situated in an authentic 18th-century New England village in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. Its historic houses and world-famous collection of early American decorative arts open doors to new perspectives that inspire people to seek a deeper understanding of themselves, their communities, and the world.

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Witness Stones Will Expand to New Schools and Add New Collaborations

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File photo by Susan Lambert/The Courier

By Jesse Williams published on ZIP06.COM on January 5, 2021.

GUILFORD — The Witness Stones Project, Inc, which had already seen significant expansion since retired Guilford social studies teacher Dennis Culliton and therapist Doug Nygren launched it in 2019, is set to grow even more in 2021 as conversations around Black Lives Matter protests last year have opened up even more avenues for the project to expand its reach. Continue Reading.

 

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