4/18/2022
National Trust Condemns Actions Against Staff at Montpelier
Historians in the Newstags: slavery, historic preservation, African American history, James Madison, Montpelier, public history
This morning, the National Trust for Historic Preservation learned that key professional staff members of The Montpelier Foundation who have spoken out in support of the Montpelier Descendants Committee have been terminated or suspended. The terminations included Elizabeth Chew, Executive Vice President & Chief Curator, and Matt Reeves, Director of Archaeology and Landscape Restoration, two long-term employees who are largely responsible for building the groundbreaking interpretive and research programs at Montpelier in collaboration with the descendant community.
The National Trust strongly condemns these actions against highly regarded and nationally recognized professionals, which will impede the effective stewardship of Montpelier and diminish important public programming at this highly significant historic site.
The National Trust has been working to achieve a resolution to the very public dispute between the Foundation and the Montpelier Descendants Committee, but these and other recent actions by the Foundation lead us to question whether a resolution is possible under the current leadership of the Foundation.
###
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization, works to save America’s historic places.
SavingPlaces.org | @savingplaces
comments powered by Disqus
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"
Trending Now
- New transcript of Ayn Rand at West Point in 1974 shows she claimed “savage" Indians had no right to live here just because they were born here
- The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
- The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of