The Dresser Trunk Project is a traveling exhibition that chronicles the lost stories, memories, and places of refuge for black travelers during segregation. The connection of cities by train facilitated the migration of black travelers between the north and south. For black musicians, train travel was often restricted to riding in the back with Pullman porters, or in segregated railcars. The porters would advise the musicians and travelers on the best—and, sometimes the only—hotel where they could stay after performing for black or predominantly white audiences. This was especially true for musicians playing the Chitlin Circuit while traveling in the South during the Jim Crow era.

The objective of this exhibition is to tell the story of eleven locations through the construction of a memory box. These memory boxes allude to the work of the artist Joseph Cornell, and the large dresser trunks that were popular during the early days of transatlantic, and transcontinental travel. The “Dresser Trunks” contain stories, photographs, and maps, describing the cultural history of these places while making connections between them. These connections form a chain of identity, like pearls on a necklace, through which each is allowed a place at the table of history.

The Dresser Trunk Project is timely in that many communities are awakening to the reality that the preservation of their unique cultural heritage is a critical component of cultural and economic development. Places like the Whitelaw Hotel in Washington D.C. and the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans have survived, but many have been lost and/or forgotten. This project strives to stem the tide by linking isolated places together in a chain that gives each their rightful place in architectural, music and cultural history. Many of these hotels, clubs, and other sites are being lost to the ravages of time and the pressures of development. Unfortunately, many do not qualify for historic designation as individual structures. However, when they are seen as part of the larger cultural phenomena of segregated travel, whose influence is still felt today, their memory if not their physical existence can be preserved. Beyond the preservation of memory, this project aspires to pass on memory as a form of inheritance upon which communities can build and in many cases rebuild.

Ten participants have designed eleven trunks. These trunks represent hotels, nightclubs, and even a Negro League baseball park. All are places located in cities served by the Southern Crescent Line, which travels from New York to New Orleans.