NEWS AND EVENTS

CONTACT: Naomi Nelson, Consultant Curator
Email: undergroundrr6@aol.com
Telephone: 215-878-8844
Web: belmontmansion.org

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, June 4, 2008

Underground Railroad Museum at Belmont Mansion Celebrates One-Year Anniversary July 4 and 5, 2008

Philadelphia, PA -- On July 4th and 5th, 2008 from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM The Underground Railroad Museum at Belmont Mansion will celebrate its one-year anniversary with an array of fun-filled and historic activities that include re-enactors of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, African dance performed by students from the Global Leadership Academy, art making workshops for families, Revolutionary War hero Ned Hector, and Civil War Colored Troops Re-enactors, storytelling with the Pennsylvania's own Linda Goss, and Underground Railroad tours of the new exhibit "The Legacy of Belmont Mansion."

This free celebration promises to be an exciting, fun filled two days for families, individuals and groups. The visitors will enjoy taking an historic journey at the Underground Railroad Museum while listening to historic narratives on new technology-driven audio kiosks. Audrey Johnson Thornton, President of the American Women's Heritage Society Underground Railroad Museum, enthusiastically shares her vision for the day, "You will walk around the property where George Washington planted a tree in honor of his friendship with Judge Richard Peters, the owner of Belmont Mansion, walk through the rooms where a newly freed enslaved young woman named Cornelia Wells lived and worked with the Peters family."

The first non-Quaker member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), Judge Richard Peters was George Washington's Secretary of War. In 1800 Judge Peters determined the fate of 134 Africans who were illegally enslaved and shipped on American vessels violating the 1794 Slave Trade Law. Peters turned the Africans over to the stewardship of the PA Abolition Society, thereby enabling the Africans to become free person in Pennsylvania. In 1811 Judge Peters purchased and immediately freed Cornelia Wells and her child from slavery and brought them to Belmont. His son, Richard Peters Jr, became President of PAS and worked with William Whipple to design the Columbia Philadelphia Railroad in order to assist runaways who jumped the train at Belmont and hid in the attic and basement. Visitors can tour the Underground Railroad Museum, enjoy push-button historical narratives, and experience America's first Palladian style architecture building.

Families and friends will enjoy meeting historic re-enactors and participate in "Make and Take" workshops that are sure to challenge the imagination and create special moments.

Discover Philadelphia's Underground Railroad history at the Underground Railroad Museum in Fairmount Park.

Who: American Women's Heritage Society
What: Underground Railroad Museum One-Year Anniversary Celebration
When: July 4th and 5th, 2008, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Where: Belmont Mansion in Fairmount Park, 2000 Belmont Mansion Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19131

Mission:

The American Women's Heritage Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1986 for the purpose of maintaining and preserving Belmont Mansion. In addition to preserving and interpreting Belmont Mansion as an historic site, AWHS seeks to build bridges of communication and interaction among the various ethnic communities in Philadelphia. Belmont Mansion is designated as a significant historic site of the Fairmount Park Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places. Through the site, AWHS has made a tremendous investment in documenting a more inclusive history of the Belmont Mansion and its ties to the Underground Railroad.