Lecture on “A Stitch in Time: Samplers from the Collection at Historic Hope Plantation” by David Serxner

The JLMH is proud to present a lecture on “A Stitch in Time: Samplers from the Collection at Historic Hope Plantation” by David Serxner on Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 2 pm at the Visitors Center of the Joel Lane Museum House at 160 South Saint Mary’s Street, Raleigh, NC 27603. Admission is $16 for the general public and $11 for members of the Joel Lane Historical Society. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited, and advanced payment is required. Please go to the Eventbrite web site to purchase tickets: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/lecture-on-a-stitch-in-time-samplers-from-the-collection-at-historic-hope-plantation-by-david-tickets-18873228334?aff=es2 . Be sure to include the names of all in your party; nametags will serve as tickets. Tickets are non-refundable unless we must cancel the event.

David Serxner will focus on finding the women who made the samplers or, more specifically, trying to find them. He will use Hope Plantation’s collection as a jumping off point for trying to locate academies and for finding the women in the census. He will show ads for academies and talk about educating women. In one case he knows that the young lady was sent on to Philadelphia to continue her education. He has found the census records for the owner of the school and will discuss how he found her. He has an obit for one of the women and knows the descendants of three of them. He is looking for their fathers in the Bertie County tax records. This has always been an interest of his, trying to find people that the historical record has tried not necessarily to have hidden, but instead have attempted to shunt to the side.

David is the Volunteer Coordinator for Programming and Education at Historic Hope Plantation, in Windsor, North Carolina. David assisted with the 2011 reinterpretation of the Hope Mansion, which resulted in a better presentation of the story of both the Stone family and the enslaved peoples held by the Stones. David is also responsible for managing the artifact collections owned by the Historic Hope Foundation.

David earned his BA in Art History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds an MA in Public History/Museum Studies from North Carolina State University. He is active in ALFAM, the Slave Dwelling Project, and other professional organizations. Originally, David was asked to come to Hope to disassemble, clean and repair, and move a 200 year-old barn loom. He was also asked to make the loom weave again. Five years later, the loom still is unable to weave, but David has moved from the loom to working with the rest of the collection. And he has enjoyed every minute of it.