Praxis Course: HART B420: Museum Studies Praxis Seminar
Semester: Spring 2026
Faculty Advisor/Professor: Monique Scott
Community Partner: Historic Annapolis
Praxis Site Supervisor: Katie Turer
Praxis Poster:
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Further Context:
This semester, I interned at Historic Annapolis, where I researched the free and enslaved Black craftspeople who worked on the James Brice House. James Brice was a wealthy Annapolitan planter, a prominent local politician, and a member of the city’s elite during and after the Revolutionary War. Between 1767 and 1774, he oversaw the construction of his mansion in downtown Annapolis. Historic Annapolis secured the site in 2014, and embarked on a painstaking restoration process in 2016 that continues to this day.
I was tasked with researching the free and enslaved Black craftspeople who built the house in order to create an interactive touchscreen exhibit. Unlike most contemporary American elites, James Brice was a meticulous record-keeper who recorded nearly every transaction in account books and inventories that survive to this day, creating a wealth of primary sources that is further supplemented by the ads he placed in the local newspaper when a bound worker escaped. Much of my research involved sifting through these primary sources and gleaning information about the craftspeople’s work and lives.
I also conducted significant secondary research in order to situate my primary findings within the context of the era. I attended lectures and explored exhibitions, articles, and books on the topics of colonial craftsmanship and enslaved craftspeople. Deepening my understanding of contemporary systems of free and enslaved craftsmanship allowed me to connect the Brice House laborers to the system of social hierarchy and labor in which they operated. Historic Annapolis’s Comprehensive Interpretation Plan for Brice House presented the organization’s goals for the site and the message they wished to share with visitors, and I focused on connecting my research to that plan.
I discovered that apprenticing enslaved laborers to skilled indentured or convict craftspeople was a common practice among wealthy enslavers like James Brice: it increased the enslaved person’s value and allowed their enslaver to rent out their labor and collect their wages. In short, enslavers viewed it as an investment in their property. However, enslaved craftspeople used their skills to develop their craft and redefine themselves as individuals, not as assets to their enslavers. Their skills allowed them to improve their socioeconomic standing, sometimes even obtaining their freedom and establishing generational wealth.
I used my research to develop a plan for an interactive touchscreen exhibit for the Brice House. Allowing visitors to interact with the stories and accomplishments of the free and enslaved Black craftspeople who built the house reflects the core tenets of the participatory museum—it transforms the museum space from a place of presentation to a place of dialogue. The interactive exhibit involves visitors in their stories and connects them to the history of not just the house, but also to the people who built it.