Nov. 19, 2015 | CONCORD

The Robbins House, a nonprofit focused on the African American history of Concord, was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The grant, which will be used to create interpretive and educational programs, requires a 1:1 cost share match by the Robbins House, whose funds are raised through contributions.

The IMLS African American History and Culture grant will help fund the following Robbins House programs: costumes and research enabling re-enactors to interpret the lives of pioneering Civil Rights advocate Ellen Garrison and other members of her household. Scholar-in-residence John Hannigan will pursue research on Concord’s early inhabitants of color, free and enslaved, under the direction of Professor Robert Gross from the University of Connecticut. This investigation will contribute to the interpretive program for tours and will inform the creation of educational resources for use in public and private schools.

In conducting their original research into African American Robbins House families, Gross and Brandeis PhD candidate Hannigan came across 100 letters written by Ellen Garrison in her service as a teacher to newly freed women and men in the South. These documents are among the papers of the American Missionary Association, her employer, at the Amistad Library of Tulane University. In her application for the teaching position, this daughter of a formerly enslaved father and grandfather declared “a strong desire to benefit my own race and if successful to spend my life among them.” Her grandfather, Caesar Robbins, may well have turned out for the fight at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775, according to research done by Hannigan.

These IMLS-funded programs will benefit over 6,600 annual visitors to the Robbins House participating in activities highlighting African American pathways to independence in the 19th century. The reenactment of Ellen Garrison’s life has been pilot-tested at four events this fall and is now available for schools and special events.

“When we invest in museums, the real beneficiaries are local communities,” said IMLS Acting Director Maura Marx. “The awards we are announcing today will fund a variety of projects to test creative solutions to museum challenges, to strengthen museum operations and to support the stewardship of our nation’s cultural heritage.”

Posted via The Concord Journal