Roundtable Discussion with Jennifer Whitmer Taylor (USC-Columbia)

Nov 17, 2025 @ 3:30pm | Location: South Caroliniana Library, Kendall Room, 910 Sumter St, Columbia, SC 29208

Nov 17, 2025 @ 3:30pm
Location: South Caroliniana Library, Kendall Room, 910 Sumter St, Columbia, SC 29208
Hosted by: University of South Carolina, McClausland College of Arts and Sciences

Join us for a roundtable discussion with Jennifer Whitmer Taylor and learn about how Woodrow Wilson's childhood home was transformed into a Reconstruction Era museum for the twenty-first century.

In Rebirth: Creating the Museum of the Reconstruction Era and the Future of the House Museum, public historian Jennifer Whitmer Taylor provides a compelling account of how to reenvision the historic house museum. Anchored by oral history interviews with docents and using the Museum of the Reconstruction Era—formerly known as the Woodrow Wilson Family Home—as a case study, Rebirth offers best practices for interpreting issues of contested public memory, such as white supremacy and domestic political terrorism, for twenty-first-century audiences. Taylor challenges readers to contemplate how historic sites interact with and contribute to vital contemporary political conversations. Rebirth is a necessary book for public history practitioners, students of museum studies and historic site interpretation, and those interested in the history and memory of the Reconstruction era.

Jennifer Whitmer Taylor is associate professor of public history at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. She specializes in museums, oral history, and digital history. She is an active public history practitioner who has developed community-engaged projects for the public history classroom in partnership with the Heinz History Center, August Wilson House, Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, and The Frick Pittsburgh Museums & Gardens.