Land as Archive Land as Archive explores three layers of history that comprise the landscape and gardens of Dumbarton Oaks. It offers the opportunity to read the land as a collection of historical narratives and embedded knowledge. "Land as Witness" shares stories of trees described as witnesses to the place over long sweeps of time. "Land as Ancestor" honors this place as the homelands of the Piscataway, from time immemorial through the present and future. "Land as Property" interrogates the claiming of property by settler colonialists who sought to create a new democratic nation while relying on the taking of Indigenous lands and then using enslaved labor to work the land. The exhibit extends into the garden and visitors are invited to walk to the Catalogue House to explore the exhibit “Bound by the Beverleys.”  These stories reveal layers of the complex history of this place, a landscape that has been built over thousands of years and remains a place in the making. Join us as we ask how did this place that we know come to be.



Bound by the Beverleys This Catalogue House exhibit explores the presence and contributions of enslaved labor in the early 19th century under the Beverley family. This exhibit will be in conjunction with Land as Archive and together will launch a deeper and more robust discussion of how the land and landscape of Dumbarton Oaks came to be and was found by the Blisses and Farrand. Bound by the Beverleys was curated by Kyra March (Humanities Fellow, 2022–2023).