The Trent House Association, in partnership with the Trenton Historical Society, presents a talk by Zara Anishanslin on the life of Black American artist, Prince Demah, on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The talk will be given at 3 pm in the Library of Historic Trenton Masonic Temple, 100 Barrack Street (across from the Old Barracks) in Trenton, New Jersey. Registration is required with $15 admission at https://tinyurl.com/PrinceDemah.
Artist Prince Demah, North America’s first identifiable enslaved portrait painter, lived an extraordinary life in revolutionary times. This talk traces his life, art, and patriotism. From his beginnings as the enslaved son of a woman from Africa in Massachusetts through the unusual training he received in London from award-winning British painter Robert Edge Pine, from his Boston painting career near Phillis Wheatley’s home to his self-emancipation and military service for the American patriot cause, Prince Demah’s life is a remarkable story of his fight for creative and personal freedom. His inspiring story reminds us how artists shaped the Revolution on both sides of the Atlantic and testifies to both the promise and the limits of liberty in the founding era.
Zara Anishanslin is Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware, where she also is Director of its Museum Studies and Public Engagement Program. For her new book, The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution (Harvard University Press, July 2025) she has been a Mount Vernon Georgian Papers Fellow at the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, a Davis Center Fellow in Princeton’s History Department, a Mellon/ACLS Scholars & Society Fellow with the Museum of the American Revolution, and a Fellow at the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society. An avid public historian, she often works with museums on exhibitions, including the reinstallation of the Early American Wing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She has served as a historical consultant for “Hamilton: The Exhibition” and is creator/co-host of the podcast “Thing 4 Things: The History Podcast Where Things Matter and Stuff Happens” (season 1, “The Stuff of Revolution” streaming now).
The William Trent House Museum is a National Historic Landmark in the Crossroads of the American Revolution National Heritage Area and on the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail. The Museum is dedicated to sharing the authentic history of the house, property, and people with our communities, connecting the past with today and tomorrow. Owned by the City of Trenton, it is operated by the Trent House Association, which is supported by the generosity of its donors; by grants from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the New Jersey Cultural Trust, the New Jersey Historic Trust, the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission with funding from the New Jersey Historical Commission, and the Bunbury Fund and the New Jersey Arts & Culture Renewal Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation; and by contributions from NJM Insurance Group and Orion General Contractors. For more information, visit www.williamtrenthouse.org.
