The Bronx County Historical Society opened a new permanent exhibition at the Museum of Bronx History as part of their programming for America’s 250th anniversary.
“The Bronx; Crucible of Liberty. Radicals, Runaways & Revolutionaries; 1600-1850” highlights the importance of areas we now know as the Bronx and lower Westchester county in the country’s broader history.
Steven Payne, director of the Bronx County Historical Society, said the exhibit, explores the tension between Dutch and English traditions of liberty and their colonization/enslavement of indigenous peoples, how enslaved people found their own paths to freedom, the struggles around the Declaration of Independence and how the struggles around freedom continued even after the United States came into being.
“It’s a pretty long arc of history but liberty is kind of the guiding strand. But not an easy kind of liberty, but one in which it’s a dynamic, conflictual process of struggle, that’s not really resolved. To this day, it’s still not resolved, but definitely in the period 1600 through 1850, it clearly wasn’t resolved,” Payne said.
The exhibit —which spent over two years in development— includes a recorded video reenactment, multiple important objects and a variety of documents and reproductions, including a newspaper advertisement taken out by Isaac Valentine, a slave owner who once-owned the property now occupied by the Museum of Bronx History.
“In anything that we drew on, we wanted to root it in local stories. So even with those large sounding national documents, in the exhibit you’ll find stories of local people who participated in either signing the documents or literally shaping the language of the documents,” Payne said.
Jack McKernan started working as a librarian with the Bronx County Historical Society on Wednesday. Though he didn’t participate in the development of the exhibit, he was happy to support the society initiate important historical conversations.
“I think a nice round number like this [250], it gives us leave to consider this once again for ourselves and ask what kind of country you want to be building going forward,” McKernan said.
One attendee, Suzanne Klebe, enjoyed the event. Klebe believes historical exhibitions like this are not only important for citizens to learn from the past, but also genuinely fascinating in their own right.
“I think that studying history gives you such an insight into that [America’s diversity] because there’s so much we don’t know about things people have contributed, that we can appreciate when we find out,” Klebe said.
Another attendee, Nick Dembowski —site historian for the Van Cortlandt House Museum— appreciated how the exhibit presented information in a way that will resonate with Bronxites today.
“I’m really impressed by the way they’ve interpreted the idea of freedom very broadly, to talk about the experiences of— not just how, you know, people we call founding fathers understood that concept, but also common people, women, native people, Native Americans. I think that’s important, to present that information as well,” Dembowski said.
For the exhibition, The Bronx County Historical Society partnered with From The Bronx and the Bronx Beer Hall, both owned by Bronx natives Anthony, Paul, and Derick Ramirez.
This collaboration included From The Bronx designing the commemorative America 250 logo that the Bronx County Historical Society has used throughout their programming, including on free cupcakes given to attendees at the exhibition launch.
“This exhibit alone shows all of the ways that the Bronx has contributed to America and to world culture. From the Bronx to the world, is what we always say,” Anthony Ramirez II said.
The Museum of Bronx History is open to the public on weekends: Saturday from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m.- 5 p.m., and private tours can be scheduled throughout the week.
Suggested donations for admission are $3 for children/seniors and $5 for adults, however no one is turned away if they cannot pay the cost of admission.
