Sheila Bridges Seneca Village Square Silk Scarf from The Met Museum

Uniting objects from history and ideals of futurism with modern flair, the stylish Seneca Village Scarf is a reverent tribute to the residents of Seneca Village (1825-57). This colorful accessory by Harlem-based interior designer Sheila Bridges (American, b. 1964) features imagery of various artifacts-maps, a comb, the bowl of a pipe, a broken teapot, a copper spoon-in the collections of the NYC Archaeological Repository and The New York Public Library (NYPL); “fractured things,” as described by Bridges, “that belonged to people who once thrived.” It’s likewise printed with photographs of Albro Lyons, Sr. and Mary Joseph Lyons, respected Seneca Village property owners, educators, and abolitionists whose lives were upended by their community’s tragic destruction. Sourced from NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, this double ambrotype portrait (1860) personifies the humanity that once abounded in this place. This item was inspired by Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. Furnished with objects in The Met collection, from Bamileke beadwork and 19th-century American ceramics to contemporary art and design that celebrates rich and diverse traditions, the installation presents a speculative home for the descendants of Seneca Village. This predominantly Black settlement flourished just a few hundred yards from the Museum’s current site before it was destroyed by the City of New York in 1857 to make way for Central Park. Acknowledging that injustice, the exhibition asks: What if this community had the opportunity to prosper? Produced in cooperation with The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, and the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, NYC Archaeological Repository: The Nan A. Rothschild Research Center.