NEWS AND EVENTS

Historic Belmont Mansion Scheduled To Open In March, 2007 As Underground Railroad Museum

PHILADELPHIA, PA (February, 2007) -- Historic Belmont Mansion Underground Railroad Museum is currently undergoing restoration and is scheduled to open to the public in March, 2007.

The American Women's Heritage Society, Inc. (AWHS) is in the final phase of creating long-term exhibitions and educational programs on the Underground Railroad at Belmont Mansion. AWHS, led by its founder and President, Mrs. Audrey Johnson-Thornton, has a mission to preserve, restore, collect and educate the public regarding the history of Belmont Mansion.

The planned exhibitions will tell the story of people who lived and worked at Belmont Mansion and their involvement in the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad. Because Philadelphia is a magnet for heritage tourism and the number one destination for African-Americana tourism, this exhibit and accompanying programs will serve both the national and local audience.

The story of Belmont Mansion inhabitants, the Peters Family and their slaves and servants, will be introduced in the main room on the first floor of the Mansion. The story will be told by "talking portraits." The exhibit will include full-scale reproductions of paintings and drawings of William Peters, his wife Mary Breintnall, his son Richard Peters and Richard's wife Sarah Robinson Peters. Richard and William will be portrayed by life-size mannequins dressed in period clothing.

Other key family members, slaves and servants, such as Cornelia Wells the slave washer woman who lived at Belmont and was freed by the Peters Family, will be portrayed by life-size mannequins in reproduction period clothing. The accompanying audio will contain first-person interpretations of their lives. The audio tracks will be linked to each portrait with options to select different tracks according to the viewer's age and interest. Peters Family memorabilia loaned by their descendants will be displayed in freestanding cases.

The story of the estate, including William Peter's formal gardens, Richard Peter's agricultural experiments, the estate's development into a resort and later inclusion into Fairmount Park, will be told in the other side-chamber on the first floor. This section will also explain the role of AWHS as a non-profit historic preservation organization dedicated to maintaining and interpreting Belmont Mansion. The exhibit will include reproductions of drawings and photographs of the estate. The display medium here is also two flat-touch screens showing the images in an interactive sequence accompanied by audio.

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