CENTER FOR ANTI-SLAVERY STUDIES PA HISTORICAL & MUSEUM COMMISSION
75 Church Street Montrose PA 18801 400 North Street, Plaza HarrisburgPA17120
Contact: Kim Glemboski,
Project Coordinator
(570) 942-4656
For Immediate Release
LOCAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD HISTORY COMES TO THE SURFACE
AT UGRR RESEARCH TRAINING SESSION
MILFORD, PA – A prevalent myth claims that the Underground Railroad never passed through Northeastern Pennsylvania, but recent research is beginning to show that myth to be dead wrong. Now you can help debunk the myth and contribute to telling an accurate history of our region. The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) will present an Underground Railroad Research Training Session on Thursday, January 13, 2005from 7:00-9:00 pm. The training session, covering Monroe, Pike and WayneCounties, will be held at the Pike County Historical Society, 608 Broad Street, Milford. Offered in partnership with the Center for Anti-Slavery Studies, the session will be of great benefit to both scholars and lay people alike, introducing them to the Northeast PA’s Underground Railroad history and giving them practical tools for their further research into the subject.All are invited to attend free of charge, but advance registration is politely requested.
The Underground Railroad has been receiving increased attention across the nation, but most particularly in our own backyards. An ambitious project to research and interpret Northeastern Pennsylvania’s role in the Underground Railroad is currently underway, funded in its initial phases by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the PA Humanities Council. The project, spearheaded by The Center for Anti-Slavery Studies (CASS) and KeystoneCollege, is a multi-year project that will research the Underground Railroad and Abolition activities of about a 10 county area of Northeastern PA. The public will be invited to participate and offer input into the project’s research & planning phase. At the end of the research phase, collected information will be formatted into a traveling exhibit, companion web-based and DVD resources & curriculum materials, and a “how-to” guide for conducting Underground Railroad research.
Thursday evening’s UGRR research training session will be facilitated by Karen James, Manager of the UGRR Initiative for the PA Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC). Karen is a noted speaker in the Commonwealth who has presented at numerous conferences, Universities, and grass-roots events on the topic of the Underground Railroad. In addition, she travels the Commonwealth assisting counties and organizations in uncovering and understanding their Underground Railroad history. “Pennsylvania is at the heart of the anti-slavery movement in the US, and a part of that movement we call the Underground Railroad,” Karen explained. “Our goal is to learn more about the role of Pennsylvanians in UGRR history. We do this by using all sorts of documents to help us find the names of the people involved or the actions of many people from different communities acrossPennsylvania.” A recent visit that Karen made to nearby BradfordCounty was very productive, indeed, in finding “clear evidence of a strong African American community, a good working relationship between white abolitionists and black citizens, and wonderful documentation about those relationships.”
The goals for the Underground Railroad Research Training Sessions are as follows:
first, to give participants a solid sense of what the UGRR was and was not. Second, the session will illustrate the vital importance of Northeastern Pennsylvania on the Underground Railroad. Our role on the national stage is a history that is under-told and much misunderstood. Lastly, Karen will provide an introduction to UGRR-specific research techniques and materials in your community. “The history of Abolition and Underground Railroad activities can not be found using traditional methods of European-style historic research,” she emphasized, “but the history is there. You just have to know where to look.”
For more information or to register forPHMC’s Underground Railroad Research Training Session, contact Karen James at 717-783-9871 or by email at . Directions and information can also be found at
For more information aboutCASS and Keystone College’s UGRR project, “The Place I Call Home: Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Underground Railroad History,” contact Kim Glemboski, project coordinator, at 570-942-4656 or at .
- END -