Tyler Professor of Sculpture Creates Monument at Stenton Museum
In 2019, Tyler Professor of Sculpture Karyn Olivier was selected from three finalists to create a monument to Dinah, a Black woman remembered by history for saving Stenton—a colonial-era mansion, now a museum at 4601 N. 18th St. in Philadelphia's Logan neighborhood—from destruction during the Revolutionary War.
Though records of her life are sparse, and no images or likenesses of her exist, Stenton staff began researching to learn more about Dinah in preparation for the monument. She was an enslaved woman at Stenton, who asked for her freedom and was emancipated on April 15, 1776, remaining as a paid caretaker.
"There was so much more to her life, and her life was so much richer, than the fact that she was a ‘colored caretaker.’" said Dennis Pickeral, Stenton’s executive director, referencing the plaque honoring Dinah, the only monument to her at the mansion, erected in 1912.
For Olivier, the absence of records about Dinah helped to shape her design. Olivier said the monument allows people to have a conversation with Dinah that helps them reflect on what liberty means to them. “I’m hoping we can speak about the link between the past to the present,” she said.
Olivier incorporated questions into the monument, both for Dinah, asking about the details of her life, and for visitors, asking them to consider Dinah and their own relationship to liberty.
The monument was unveiled on Saturday, April 20 during a public ceremony at Stenton, which included poetry, drummers, and remarks by Olivier and residents of the surrounding Logan neighborhood.
The Pew Center for the Arts & Heritage supported the project with a $360,000 grant—Stenton raised the rest of the funds to complete the $500,000 project through donors and other funders.
Read the full story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.