Monument Lab
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06/25/2026
Join Monument Lab for the launch of “Declaration House,” a new publication that places Robert Hemmings—the enslaved valet who accompanied Thomas Jefferson to Philadelphia in 1776—at the center of the story of the nation’s founding.
Featuring essays, interviews, poetry, and photography inspired by artist Sonya Clark’s monumental artwork “The Descendants of Monticello,” the publication examines the contradictions embedded in the nation’s founding and the lives that have too often been left out of its telling.
The evening will feature a conversation with Monument Lab director Paul Farber and Declaration House contributor Gayle Jessup White, books and merchandise will be available for purchase in the Monument Lab pop-up space, and make your very own button featuring the eye of a Philadelphia “founding figure” inspired by Sonya Clark’s artwork.
RSVP: https://lnkd.in/eac-_aXu
Last month, we gathered in Philadelphia with over 300 artists, teachers, designers, nonprofit leaders, government workers, scholars, and community leaders for our 2026 Monument Lab Summit: The School of Monumaking. Together, we lived into the question, “How do we cultivate kinship through the process of monumaking?”
The gathering was electric, inspiring, and full of imagination and hope.
More than ever, building and reinforcing kinship networks feels like a radical and deeply necessary act. Our future depends on it. As we approach the upcoming 250th anniversary of this nation, we feel the weight and urgency of this work.
Against the backdrop of plans for a 250-foot-arch and plenty of pomp, we are reaching out to people like you to practice something radically different. We want to rally more support for our work around this historic anniversary and for many years to come, so our monuments reflect fuller histories and guide us toward greater forms of learning, healing, and belonging.
We continue to reimagine monuments not as fixed, shining objects or simple distillations of truths, but as living practices that connect us to one another. Kinship offers a way forward, not by smoothing over difference, but by building relationships that can hold complexity and care.
For this 250th anniversary, join us and our growing movement of kindred spirits in celebrating possibility, accountability, and each other.
Now through June 30th your donation will be matched in honor of bringing kinship and belonging this 250th. Donate today: https://givebutter.com/kinship-monumaking
06/19/2026
The document pictured above bears the only surviving instance of Robert Hemmings’s signature and handwriting known to the historical record.
In 1776, Hemmings was a fourteen-year-old enslaved valet accompanying Thomas Jefferson on a trip to Philadelphia as the Declaration of Independence was being drafted. More than three decades later, after gaining his freedom, he signed the marriage bond of his daughter Elizabeth, preserving a rare record of a life often left at the margins of America’s founding story.
In our latest publication, Declaration House, Andrew M. Davenport, Vice President for Research at Monticello, reflects:
“Seeing Hemmings’s signature and considering all that his family’s freedom meant during the era of slavery is a powerful reminder of the lives of the founding generation whose stories have been rarely, if ever, told.”
This Juneteenth, we’re thinking about the gap between the ideals expressed in 1776 and the realities of freedom as they were lived, fought for, and carried forward across generations.
Throughout the summer, we’ll continue exploring Robert Hemmings’s life, the history of the Declaration of Independence, and what changes when we place overlooked stories at the center of our understanding of America’s founding.
Dive into these questions with us by pre-ordering your copy of “Declaration House” today at the link in bio.
Major support for Declaration House has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from VIA Art Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Project partners include Independence National Historical Park and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s Monticello and its Getting Word African American History Department.
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