Scher, PhilipTurbin, Jonathan2019-09-182019-09-182019-09-18https://hdl.handle.net/1794/24950The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC) is a museum located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It anchors a riverfront development project where, beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, cities and towns in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky invested in areas around the banks of the Ohio River. NURFC therefore serves multiple purposes as a tourism draw taking advantage of waterfront property, an educational institution, a monument, a place of employment, and a “museum of conscience” akin to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC and the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. As a “museum of conscience,” NURFC is devoted to telling the story of abolitionists fighting African American chattel enslavement prior to the US Civil War and human trafficking in the present day, as well as facilitating racial reconciliation in contemporary Cincinnati. Its mission is as lofty as it is multifaceted and daunting. This dissertation is the result of a year and a half of participant observation, surveys, and ethnographic interviews. It explores NURFC’s various missions and provides a set of evaluative criteria regarding them.en-USAll Rights Reserved.ArtifactsMuseum EducationNarrativesPublic HistoryElectronic Thesis or Dissertation