Grand unveiling

The faces of the Pettijohn family brought a packed house to the African American Heritage Museum on Sunday. The unveiling of the now fully restored ‘Portraits of a People’ exhibit was held Sunday, following months of restoration work to charcoal portraits - called crayon drawings - dating to the 19th or early 20th century, along with one photograph. The portraits were found in the crawlspace of a Michigan Avenue home in Atlantic City by Ralph Hunter, director of the AAHM. The family who owned the Michigan Avenue property had little information on the portraits, but Walt McClister, a local genealogist, has identified the family as the Pettijohns, and learned the names of their spouses and their occupations.

[Photo #1] Ralph Hunter, director of the African American Heritage Museum in the Newtonville section of Buena Vista Township, Atlantic County, guides U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., on a tour of portraits Sunday.

[Photo #2] The restored portrait of a girl is an example of the work done to the portraits found in the crawlspace of an Atlantic City home.

African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey
661 Jackson Road, Newtonville, NJ 08346, 609-704-7262; (fax: 704-7263)
email: rhunter@AAHMSNJ.org

This site maintained by Bob Barnett.
Last updated: 2005 First Month, 10th.