Northport exhibit on Peter Crippen marks a first for Huntington African American Museum

Huntington’s African American Museum is presenting its first exhibit, American Interiority: The Life and Legacy of Peter Crippen, an examination of one of Huntington’s early African American leaders.

The exhibit opens Friday and runs through June 22 at Kasher Gallery & Studios, 19 Scudder Ave., Northport. It will feature about 60 pieces selected from archaeological digs at Crippen’s home, which was on Creek Road in Halesite.

The show also will include a digital component for visitors to experience more artifacts including pieces from the home's deconstruction last year.

The home, parts of which are believed to contain structural timbers from as early as the 17th century, had fallen into disrepair and was dismantled to save fragments. The salvageable pieces were donated to the museum and will eventually be displayed.

Tiarra Inez Brown, the African American Museum’s curator for the exhibit, said she spent about a year creating the show. Features will include a model of the home, circa 1950, and the original emancipation documents for Crippen and his father.

“It’s an investigative dig on who Peter Crippen is and what legacy means and how we remember people and spaces,” Brown said.

Kinza Kasher, co-owner of the gallery with her sister Minahil Kasher, said the Crippen exhibit spoke to the gallery’s goal of storytelling. She said the artifacts from the home spark curiosities and questions about Crippen and his family.

“Something about the resilience, about the way the story was presented to us, was very interesting,” Kasher said.

Barry Lites, executive director of the museum, said Crippen’s story is an example of “the untold richness” of the African American experience and a wonderful story to introduce the public to what the museum has in store.

While there is no physical building for the museum or a timeline of when construction will commence, Lites said museum leadership is working to raise money to build the $60 million project.

A 99-year license agreement was approved in 2023 between the Huntington Town Board and museum to use a 1½-acre plot of town-owned land for the project. The site is on the corner of New York Avenue and Mill Dam Road, not far from what used to be an African American settlement.

Conceptual designs of the museum property were completed last year. The next stage is to raise money to create a plan to build the project that can go out to bid, Lites said.

Lites said a fundraiser is planned for Sept. 23 at Oheka Castle. “With a world-class design, the Huntington African American Museum is now poised to fulfill what is, without a doubt, an ambitious project,” he said.