New Signs At Worcester Art Museum Tell Viewers Of Art's Connection To Slavery

08:26

May 30, 2018

Maria Garcia
Meghna Chakrabarti

Next to the picture of John Bours in the American Portrait Gallery at the Worcester Art Museum is a new board with information connecting Bours to slavery. It reads "Cato Bours, a slave of John Bours, was enlisted in the Continental Battalions during the American Revolution. His value was given as £120." (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

Last night in Brookline, town meeting members voted to rename a K-8 school — The Edward S. Devotion School — because its namesake was an 18th-century slave owner.

The change comes as part of the continuing conversation about how the nation portrays and memorializes — or doesn't — its history of slavery.

That conversation is moving into the art world. Curators at the Worcester Art Museum have installed new, permanent signs to tell visitors which people in early American portraits owned enslaved people or benefited from slavery.

Guest

Maria Garcia, WBUR arts reporter. She tweets @mariareports.

This segment aired on May 30, 2018.