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The Matheson History Museum is hosting a curator talk with the Curator of Exhibitions, Willett Hancock, on Wednesday, September 16 at 7pm to share about his year and a half of research and curating of "Chains of Steele: Money, Power, and Influence."Registration: https://mathesonmuseum.networkforgood.com/events/104519-curator-talk
"Chains of Steele: Money, Power, and Influence" is the result of a year and a half of research, planning, and writing. Utilizing unique documents stored in the museum’s archive, the exhibit examines two ancestors of Gainesville’s Matheson family, Augustus and Augusta Steele, and the ways that they interacted with and benefited from the institution of American slavery.
Augustus was born in 1792 in Massachusetts, and at the time of his birth slavery was outlawed in that state. At the time of his death, he was a devoted Confederate official, advocate for slavery, and enslaver. The exhibit looks at what choices brought him to that point and how he benefited from those choices.
His only child, Augusta, was part of the last generation that grew up supported by the institution of slavery. She turned 18 in 1865, the year that emancipation reached Florida and the rebellion collapsed. The ways that her life went on afterwards tell us something about the long-lasting impacts slavery had on our history.
This original exhibition features Matheson Family photos rarely on display, excerpts from the family’s papers, and a memorial to the people the Steeles enslaved with the first biographies ever written about these individuals.
Sponsored in part by Visit Gainesville/Alachua County, FL
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513 E University Ave, Gainesville, FL, United States, Florida 32601
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