In 2023, the History & Heritage Department of Sylvester Manor, with funding provided by the Mellon Foundation’’s Humanities in Place and Higher Learning initiatives, began a three-year project of deep historical research and partnership outreach with other history organizations, house museums and institutes of higher learning. Our initiatives extend from local partners such as the Eastville Community Historical Society and The Plain Sight Project to regional organizations such as the Northern Slavery Collective and Preservation Long Island/Lloyd’s Manor.
Our partnerships with universities include our 20 year relationship with the University of Massachusetts/Boston’s Fisk Center for Archaeological Research which will begin a new digitization project of the artifacts found at Sylvester Manor. The team will also return in the spring of 2024 to continue the study at the Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground as well as new projects.
In addition, the Bard Graduate Center will offer a course on the decorative arts collections housed at Sylvester Manor and graduate students from New York University will undertake further study of the Sylvester Manor Archive Collection housed at the university’s Fales Library.
Director of History & Heritage, Donnamarie Barnes and History & Heritage Associate Alice Clark will continue to further their research in various archives to advance the study of the Manor’s history of both the Sylvester family descendants and the Enslaved and Free People of Color of the Manor. They will also continue to visit similar sites to learn how other organizations “tell the story”.
Post Office Box 2029
80 North Ferry Road
Shelter Island, NY 11964 info@sylvestermanor.org 631.749.0626
