Enfilade

This exhibition looks intriguing for its subject alone, but even more interesting given that it’s the work (in partnership with Monticello) of a museum that doesn’t break ground until later this month. As reported by Brett Zongker of the Associated Press, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is organizing exhibits before the museum opens, in 2015, as a way to assess strategies for productively reaching large audiences with difficult subjects. -CH

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Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty
National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C., 27 January — 14 October 2012
Atlanta History Center, 1 February — 7 July 2013
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, 10 August 2013 — 2 March 2014
National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, 9 April 2014 — 4 January 2015
African American Museum, Dallas, 22 September — 31 December 2018  (extended to 21 January 2019)

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and Monticello will present Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello: Paradox of Liberty, an exhibition of artifacts from the Smithsonian’s collections and from excavations at Jefferson’s Virginia plantation. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence and called slavery an “abominable crime,” yet he was a lifelong slaveholder. The exhibition will provide a look at the lives of six slave families living at Monticello alongside Jefferson and his family. Personal belongings and working tools will be on display, and visitors will have a chance to learn about the families’ connections to one another, their religious faith and their efforts to pursue literacy and freedom.

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Note (added 23 September 2018) — The posting was updated to include the four additional venues.