Contact:
Margaret Anne Tockarshewsky, Executive Director, New Haven Museum
203-562-4183, ext. 20, matockarshewsky@newhavenmuseum.org
Julie Winkel, Media Specialist, 203-815-0800, jwinkel@live.com
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Lives of Enslaved Honored on Juneteenth at Pardee-Morris House
New Haven, Conn. (May 5, 2022)—As the New Haven Museum celebrates Juneteenth 2022, Dennis Culliton, the founder and executive director of the Witness Stones Project, will visit the Pardee-Morris House to inform visitors of the lives of Pink and Stepna, two enslaved individuals who are now memorialized with Witness Stones at the historic site, on Sunday, June 19, 2022, from 12 – 2:30 p.m. The historic site will remain open for free tours until 4 PM. For weather updates check our FB/IG pages or call 203-562-4183.
Witness Stones Memorials are cement and bronze markers which note the names of enslaved individuals, their trades, and whether they were emancipated or died enslaved, along with corresponding dates.
In 2021, students from Cold Spring School and The Foote School researched Pink and Stepna and presented their work at PMH. One of the stones at PMH honors Stepna Primus, a farmer enslaved by Amos Morris, Isaac Forbes and Enos Hemingway. He was emancipated in 1796 and died in 1818. The second stone honors Pink, Stepna’s wife and a mother, who was enslaved by Amos Morris and later became a landowner. Pink was emancipated in 1800 and died circa 1850.
For more information on the Witness Stones Project visit www.WitnessStonesProject.org.
The Museum thanks its community partners: WSHU 91.1 FM, The Howard Gilman Foundation, Avangrid/UI Lighting Up the Arts, and Alder Salvatore E. DeCola for supporting the 2022 summer season.
About the Pardee-Morris House
Located at 325 Lighthouse Road, in New Haven, the Pardee-Morris House dates from about 1780, and is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places. Built by Amos Morris around 1750, the house was burned by the British during their raid on New Haven in 1779 and rebuilt and expanded by the Morris family. In 1918, William Pardee, adescendant of the Morris family, willed the property to the New Haven Colony Historical Society, today the New HavenMuseum. For a complete list of summer events at the Pardee-Morris House, visit: newhavenmuseum.org/visit/pardee-morris-house/ For New Haven Museum’s event calendar: newhavenmuseum.org/visit/events-calendar/ Sign up for e-blasts at info@newhavenmuseum.org.
About the New Haven Museum
The New Haven Museum has been collecting, preserving and interpreting the history and heritage of Greater New Haven since its inception as the New Haven Colony Historical Society in 1862. Located in downtown New Haven at 114 Whitney Avenue, the Museum brings more than 375 years of New Haven history to life through its collections, exhibitions, programs and outreach. As a designated Blue Star Museum, the New Haven Museum offers the nation’sactive- duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve, free admission from Memorial Day through Labor Day. For more information visit
www.newhavenmuseum.org and @NewHavenMuseum or call 203-562-4183.
