(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Morven Museum & Garden announced a grant award of $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the Inclusive History Gallery Exhibition project to write interpretive text for a new exhibition gallery and develop related public programming. This new gallery will use the museum's second floor west wing, which, before the construction of the Stockton Education Center, served as a large meeting room.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a federal agency dedicated to funding humanities projects, announced $22.6 million in grants for 219 “exemplary projects that will foster discovery, education, and innovative research in the humanities.”
“We thank the NEH for supporting this significant project,” said Rhonda DiMascio, Executive Director at Morven Museum & Garden. “The grant will help Morven expand the story we tell about everyone who lived here. We're excited to continue our work with research and archival consultant Sharece Blakney, who has conducted over 900 hours of research on people enslaved by the Stockton family."
Blakney and Morven’s curators will develop interpretive text and related programming for the first Inclusive History Gallery exhibition (to open in Fall 2025) as part of the grant funding. The exhibition will examine families like the Stocktons, whose landing holdings and familial ties stretched across states in the North and South in the period leading up to the Civil War. Morven will also work with community advisor Shirley Satterfield to connect programming with Princeton's Black History.
The work on the Inclusive History project will commence on March 1. Morven’s Inclusive History Gallery Exhibition Text and Programming project has been made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Most historic sites celebrate one notable resident. Morven is unique in that it was home to many remarkable people. Built during the 1750s and home to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton, Morven was home to five generations of Stocktons, then Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. before becoming New Jersey’s first Governor’s Mansion and home to five New Jersey governors, their families, and staffs, witnessing nearly 300 years of history. Morven celebrated 20 years as a Museum in 2024. Located at 55 Stockton Street, in Princeton, New Jersey, Morven Museum & Garden is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00am to 4:00pm. The gardens are open daily until dusk.
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation.
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