Wilson Bruce Evans Society - Content Developer Exhibits

Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society seeks a Content Developer for Exhibits.

The Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society is looking for a Content Developer to work in cooperation with an Exhibit Design Team to make plans for the interior public spaces now under rehabilitation in the National Historic Landmark Wilson Bruce Evans House. The Content Design position is funded as part of a grant from the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights program.

Any work that may impact the site or structure must meet the Secretary of Interior Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation.

The Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society (Evans HHS) is a 501(c)3 established in 2021 to rehabilitate the Wilson Bruce Evans House in Oberlin, Ohio. Built by a North Carolina born free man of color, the home’s original wing was completed by 1856, with a substantial two-story brick addition to the structure in the 1870s. The area available for exhibition is approximately 1200 square feet and includes 4 major areas—three rooms in the historic home and a newly refurbished 600 square foot flexibly configured educational center in the rehabilitated original wing--plus hallways and entrances.

Background:
Trained as a cabinetmaker, Evans was an active abolitionist who went to jail for participation in the 1858 Oberlin Wellington Rescue in defiance of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. He is said to have hidden freedom seekers in his house. Two of his Oberlin kin, his brother-in-law Lewis Sheridan Leary and his nephew John Copeland, gave their lives for joining in John Brown’s Uprising.

Rich with history and craft details, the house is being rehabilitated to open to the public as an historic site and educational center honoring the history of Evans, his descendants, and the long struggle for racial justice in the U.S. Documents, photographs, furniture and other objects pertaining to the house are currently in storage. Archeological explorations in 2024 recovered interesting fragments.

The Evans HHS Board approved the museum master plan completed in 2024 to guide content development and exhibit design.

The Evans HHS Board includes many descendants of Evans as well as local historians. It works closely with the Executive Director. The organization currently has no paid employees, although it will transition to paid staff after its opening to the public, now expected to be at the end of 2026.

The Evans House has now begun its comprehensive rehabilitation funded in large part by National Park Service grants. It will be conducting a concurrent search for an Exhibit Designer to work in cooperation with the Content Developer

Vision:
As a rare Black-owned historic site with a board that is committed to promoting racial justice, the Evans House seeks to strengthen to the public’s understanding of African American history and Oberlin’s history; celebrate and serve the local African American community; anchor an abolitionist and African American historical district in Oberlin; and inspire visitors to work toward a more just world, in Oberlin and beyond.

Situated in Oberlin, a small town in northeast Ohio known as “the town that started the Civil War” because of its antislavery activism, the Evans House seeks to position itself as the starting point for Black heritage tourism in the region. It envisions offering visitors hands-on experiences telling the history of the Underground Railroad, and also less widely known but vital stories including accounts of how the descendants of Wilson Bruce Evans founded schools in the post-Civil War south where they nurtured Black educational aspirations despite Jim Crow restrictions.

It will illuminate their achievements, and others in Oberlin and beyond, underscoring the long history of the struggle for equality. By exploring the stories of the advances of, and challenges to, Oberlin’s Black residents and neighborhoods, it will illuminate the impact of racism and document resistance and achievement, locally and nationally. When open, the Evans House will feature exhibits that are interactive, attractive to multiple audiences especially young people, and invite…