Parsons Newman Lecture Series: Connecting Sites and Stories: New Insights on African American History Research in Frederick County

The Parsons Newman Lecture Series is FREE to attend. The series honors the civic leadership of Parsons Newman and is presented through the Parsons Newman Fund established by Mr. and Mrs. John D. Hendrickson II at The Community Foundation of Frederick County.

Building relationships through the sharing of cultural memory, research collections, and personal experiences creates a more complete and compelling understanding of our history. In recent years, such relationships between local organizations have been crucial to helping our historical sites and museums discover and share more of their own stories and their interconnectedness through the lives of the people that once inhabited them.

Particularly, this collaboration has expanded our understanding of how enslaved people experienced different living and labor conditions among Frederick County’s domestic, industrial, and agricultural settings. In the midst of such challenging circumstances, we are introduced to stories of courageous people who risked everything to seek the promises of equality, justice, and freedom that inspired our nation’s founding, for which we celebrate the 250th anniversary in 2026. We are discovering how they navigated emancipation and established new lives as free people, and how communities were formed, moved, and in some cases, lost as time went on.

This program will feature representatives from several history organizations, including Heritage Frederick, Rose Hill Manor Parks and Museum, and the Catoctin Furnace Historical Society, in conversation about their shared research initiatives and how these new insights are being shared with visitors and local communities.