Visit Philadelphia will find 'new home' for slavery exhibits if Trump administration removes them from the President's House

Fallon Roth, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sep 9, 2025

Published in News & Features

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PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia’s main tourism agency is joining the fight to help protect jeopardized exhibits about slavery at Independence National Historical Park should they be removed by President Donald Trump’s administration later this month.

Angela Val, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, told The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that if displays about slavery at the President’s House Site are removed, after they were flagged for the Trump administration’s content review earlier this summer, her organization would step in to keep that history alive for visitors in another location.

Changes could be made to flagged exhibits as soon as Sept. 17.

“We were concerned that the full story, the history of this country, would not be told here in Philadelphia,” Val said.

Visit Philly is a nonprofit organization for tourism in the Philadelphia region, established in 1996 by the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Pew Charitable Trusts. Last year, it received most of its funding from its 1.53% share of Philadelphia’s hotel tax revenue. It also receives government grants and foundation support for specific projects.

The nonprofit is leading the promotion of Philadelphia’s festivities in honor of the 250th anniversary of America next year, which is sure to bring an increase in tourism to the city’s historic sites. Val said the truth of American history — even the ugly parts — should be recognized during the 250th.

“We promote Philadelphia as a destination to visitors, and also claim in our branding that we are a historic city and that everyone can learn about American history here, and history is factual,” Val said.

If the displays are removed, Visit Philly would find a “new home” for those pieces of history — one that is privately owned and open to the public, ideally in Philadelphia’s historic district, Val said. She added that the nonprofit would reach out to its partners at the Independence Visitor Center for help identifying potential locations.

Visit Philly could also work with a historian to create a new display in the historic district that includes information from the President’s House if it is not legally possible to transfer the original panels to another area, Val said.

The nonprofit’s involvement is part of the mounting opposition from local and regional groups against the Trump administration’s threats to this site, where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived in the first years of the United States.

Washington enslaved nine people at the residence, and the present-day site at Independence Park memorializes them and outlines the dichotomy of liberty and slavery in colonial America.

In total, more than a dozen exhibits at Independence Park were flagged by park staff for the Trump administration’s content review, The Inquirer reported in July. That evaluation is in accordance with directives from Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordering removal of content that “inappropriately disparage(s) Americans past or living.”

The Avenging the Ancestors Coalition has been the leading advocacy organization against the Trump administration’s orders, holding a rally and a town hall this summer to help catalyze public opposition to the threats to the site. The Black-led group helped shape the President’s House in the early 2000s.

Val and Visit Philly’s chief marketing officer, head of communications, and head of diverse marketing attended the ATAC public town hall on Sept. 3 to listen to community members’ input before the organization decided to embark on its efforts. She said Visit Philly is open to suggestions from the public on how it can help.

Roz McPherson, the original project director of the President’s House, who is helping to lead ATAC’s advocacy on this issue, told The Inquirer on Monday that it was a “big deal” for Visit Philly to reach out to her and offer assistance.

Other acts of protest have arisen in recent weeks, including a letter to Burgum from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, and signed by 45 Philadelphia-area historical organizations, opposing the potential exhibit changes.

Intervening in such a situation as this is new for Visit Philly, but one worth the fight, Val said, even if Trump expresses his disapproval of the mounting opposition to his efforts to sanitize history at Independence Park.

“It is possible for (Trump) to say that he doesn’t like that Philly is fighting back, around wanting to keep these panels as they are, continue to tell the history,” she said. “That’s very possible, but I don’t think that should stop us from trying to maintain who we are here.”

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