History PhD candidate Laura Brannan Fretwell recently facilitated two public planning sessions for the National Park Service. The sessions were related to Fretwell’s dissertation project on the history and memory of African Americans at Chimborazo Park in Richmond, Virginia. She recently published part of this research in an article (co-written with Eliane Schmid), “Layering Public Park Histories,” in the European Journal of Geography's special issue "Spatial Humanities and Contemporary Geographical Approaches”: https://www.eurogeojournal.eu/index.php/egj/article/view/679.
Even before the publication of this article, Fretwell’s research gained the attention of Richmond National Battlefield Park (RNBP), a regional unit of National Park Service. RNBP contracted Fretwell to plan and facilitate public planning sessions for their headquarters’ visitor center at Chimborazo Park. Two of the planning sessions were held last month. RNBP is planning to upgrade their museum’s indoor and outdoor exhibitions and invited Fretwell to facilitate these sessions, given her content expertise and the connections she’s created with the community during her dissertation research. The RNBP museum’s coverage of the Civil War period focuses only the Confederate hospital on the Chimborazo park site. Fretwell’s research uncovers the previously untold history of the African American community that lived on site after the war and later displaced for the construction of the city park. RNBP’s visitor center had been established within the national context of a White resurgence in the mid-1950s that did not encourage Black or Native American visitation to the site. During the planning sessions, Fretwell presented about her research and invited members of the community to share their experiences and memories of the park and visitor center. In the coming months, she will provide recommendations to the museum based on public feedback. Fretwell’s goal is to drive change in public interpretation of Chimborazo’s site, and she hopes to continue serving as a liaison between the park service and the community. Here is more information about the sessions and NPS’ plans: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?parkID=263&projectID=126844.
December 12, 2024