MARBLEHEAD — As Marblehead Museum’s Executive Director Lauren McCormack prepares to say goodbye to Marblehead, she leaves one last exhibit that reflects the history of Marblehead and encapsulates her years of hard work.

In this final exhibit for the Marblehead Museum titled “Resistance & Resilience: Slavery and Freedom in Marblehead,“ McCormack has transformed the old slave quarters into a living history of the enslaved people of Marblehead and the incredible resilience it took to find freedom. As you walk through the exhibit, you can see and feel the years of dedication and research that McCormack and her fellow researchers put into the exhibit. 

McCormack began working with the Marblehead Museum back in 2018, and soon after, the museum was able to purchase the slave quarters that sit next door to Col. Jeremiah Lee’s mansion in 2021. Due to Marblehead’s strong connection to its history, McCormack was able to spend these last eight years curating exhibits that tell an in-depth story about Marblehead.

“We’ve been studying the history of Black individuals in Marblehead for a number of years now,” McCormack said. “But this building was sort of the impetus to take all the research we’ve been doing and make an exhibit out of it.” 

One of the many highlights of the exhibit is what McCormack calls “people panels” that showcase a few of the many enslaved people of Marblehead who had extraordinary stories. One story in particular stood out to McCormack through her research about a young man named Pompey. He was enslaved by Capt. Richard Trevett and soon after, attempted to escape a dreadful fate. With a lot of luck and determination, Pompey made it overseas. However, his story would end with recapture. 

“He’s actually overseas in Calais and somebody recognizes him from Marblehead,” McCormack said. “It speaks to his constant quest for freedom, but at the same time, how far-reaching Marblehead was because it was such a maritime economy.” 

In another panel, McCormack tells the story of an enslaved woman named Flora Lee. Flora was handed down to generations of Lee family members as a lifelong slave, and eventually found herself separated from her own daughter. 

“Her story is one of constantly trying to maintain her familial bonds, either her blood family or her found family, but she doesn’t have the control over her life to maintain those bonds,” McCormack said. “And yet, her enslaver writes to her daughter from Marblehead to Nova Scotia. At the very end of the letter, it says, Flora sends her duty to you, her enslaver, and her love to her child.”

McCormack has spent a huge portion of her career focused on the histories of Black individuals in the greater Boston area. Her pull toward this aspect of history was getting the chance to tell stories that are often underrepresented, especially in the curation of museums. The exhibit has an incredibly personal undertone because of McCormack’s career-long focus on these marginalized histories, she said. 

“It became really important to us as an institution, especially after George Floyd’s murder,” McCormack said. “We weren’t researching this [Black history] to the same extent we have been researching white history.” 

The research McCormack had done prior to Marblehead Museum became a part of the exhibit as well, specifically her research on the Black and white individuals who lived together in what would eventually become the modern-day Boston neighborhood of Beacon Hill. McCormack’s heart is deeply embedded in her work and this exhibit showcases that proudly.

While Marblehead will surely miss the wonderful histories McCormack has brought to life over the years, she is looking forward to this next chapter in her life. McCormack will be taking over the executive director position for Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area. 

“It’s a new challenge. A different challenge. It’s not one museum. It’s being able to support a series of museums and cultural sites throughout a very large area,” McCormack said. “It’s something to be excited about and look forward to.” 

Even in this new phase she is heading toward, McCormack will take all the things she learned from her time in Marblehead, especially all the ways the town has made her work even more exciting to do. 

“So many people became part of the museum community while I’ve been here, or they were already,” McCormack said. “Because of their appreciation for the town’s history, it made my job even more enjoyable.” 

Lauren McCormack will be leaving Marblehead on June 30, but her exhibit is not going anywhere. Stop in before her departure to see her wonderful exhibit and give McCormack many well-wishes as she enters this new chapter.

The Marblehead Museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday.