New Sculpture Unveiling Planned At Root House Juneteenth Ceremony

MARIETTA, GA — The historic William Root House museum in Marietta is adding a new sculpture to its garden next weekend, honoring the enslaved people who lived in Marietta prior to the Civil War.

Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society will unveil the sculpture — which Kennesaw State University art and design students helped create — during a Juneteenth program Saturday, June 12, the city announced Thursday.

Census records from 1860 show Marietta had 297 households and a population of about 2,600 people — 45 percent of whom were enslaved, or 1,175 people.

KSU students and Cobb Landmarks partnered for the sculpture's creation to honor and remember Marietta's enslaved population whose names were not recorded and now lost to time.

Using 3D scanning technology, KSU students scanned living history interpreter Misha Harp for the sculpture.

Harp works at the museum and does living history cooking interpretations using an 1850s stove, according to Trever Beemon, Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society's executive director. The students used the scan to print a model of the sculpture with a 3D printer, which an artist from KSU's master craftsman course used as they crafted the full-size version.

Hannah and William Root were early settlers of Marietta, who moved to the city from Philadelphia in 1839 and became the city's first pharmacist, according to a news release from the city of Marietta. The Root House was restored to its original appearance in the 1990s and is now operated by Cobb Landmarks as a historic house museum.

William Root House is located at 80 N. Marietta Parkway, just outside the Marietta Square. The new sculpture will be unveiled during the Juneteenth program, which begins at 10 a.m. June 12.

Juneteenth recognizes the day Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas — the westernmost Confederate state — to announce that about 250,000 enslaved people in the state were free by executive decree on June 19, 1865, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law and marked the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved people in the U.S.

The free Juneteenth event in Marietta will include guided tours, history demonstrations and poetry readings. For more information, visit the website for William Root House.

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