MUSEUM STUDIES

Past the Pipes: Stories of the Terra Cotta Community

Terra Cotta was a segregated African American community in Greensboro, founded for workers who, from the 1880s to the 1970s, made clay sewer pipes that run beneath city streets across the South.  Now the community is aging and its story is in danger of being forgotten.  In partnership with Terra Cotta’s neighborhood museum and its director, the students conducted research in public records, built relationships with community members, recorded oral interviews, designed and facilitated public programs, gathered images and artifacts, created media pieces, and installed a permanent exhibition in the museum.  This project was recognized with the Graduate Student Project Award by the National Council on Public History. See the Student View.