A Camden history museum is a goal for the city’s ‘memory worker’

By the time Dolly Marshall got into historic preservation professionally in the last decade, the former flight attendant and retail manager already had lots of homegrown experience.

“I was volunteering and doing genealogical work on behalf of my family in searching records, and specifically African American burial spaces,” she said. “I was going to cemeteries, going through burial records, and trying to connect the dots, and finding where my ancestors were interred, learning more about their lived experiences in the places where they settled.”

Marshall, who is going into her third year as the city of Camden’s historic preservation specialist, has been recognized for her work in the field by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, lawmakers, and community members. Last year, she won the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Emerging Leaders in Historic Preservation Award, which recognizes innovators who work to preserve history in local, state, or national communities.

“Preservation isn’t just preserving buildings,” said Marshall, a Rutgers-Camden graduate student. “It’s preserving memory.”

» READ MORE: Volunteers uncover hundreds of graves at historic South Jersey cemetery for Black vets, former enslaved people

Carol Quillen, president and chief executive officer of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, called winners of the organization’s awards “some of the most effective leaders in the field of preservation.”

The Inquirer talked to Marshall about her work uncovering and highlighting African American history and her plans to get Philly visitors to cross the river during the country’s 250th birthday celebrations. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Historic preservation has appreciation and a technical way of looking at a building, but it’s more from a sense of place, where it’s not just brick and mortar. It’s like, who are the people that built that building? And what took place in that building?

That’s why the site where Rev. [Alexander Heritage] Newton’s home was is significant. Because the New Mickle Baptist Church, they own that [vacant lot] and weren’t aware that an abolitionist had his home there. People that are in memory work, we have all this information, and that’s one of the beauties of it. We like to share it and tell people, “Hey, did you know…?”

I think history work, and particularly what I like to call memory work, I think you’re going to see a lot more people wanting to go into this field. And especially when they see people that look like me. Because I’m the first African American woman in this role in the city. So that is another way to break a glass ceiling and to get some young person motivated into, “Well, I could do that too.”

I call myself a memory worker. Memory can be very controversial. What do we choose to memorialize? How do we remember?

A lot of the work I do is social justice. I call it also restorative work. In certain cities, you might see a statue of a person, and once it’s been deeply rooted in a community, that’s all you know. But then you start unearthing stories of other individuals that were around at the same time.

Take, for instance, Walt Whitman. Whitman spent his final years here in Camden. But sometimes the narrative of Walt Whitman can overshadow the narrative of a William H. Jones, my great-grandfather that paved [sidewalks] as a city contractor [in the late 1800s]. And so I’m looking to make sure we have the representation of everyone that shaped this community. It’s so many stories. I want everyone that not only lives here, but works here and plays here to know the deep cultural significance of the space.

That awareness not only instills a sense of pride in your surroundings, but it also opens up other opportunities. ...Why do cities want to invest in cultural heritage tourism? Because it creates jobs, it diversifies the economy, it brings new visitors, but it also bolsters and supports the existing community members. It makes them feel good that they live in a place of value and of significance and that they want to be in.

People come from all over to visit historical resources. [But] I meet so many people like, “I live in this city, and I never went to the Liberty Bell,” or “I didn’t go to such-and-such.” And it’s like, why? But then it goes to, “Well, I never saw myself as part of this.”

History has been not inclusive, and history has not been as forthright with the information and the contributions of marginalized communities, oppressed individuals.

I want to specifically really work to make sure the church history in Camden doesn’t get overshadowed, doesn’t get lost. That they get the improvements that they need. The Black church was a hub, where people not only got spiritual solace, but they got assistance, they got knowledge.

How many people can say, “I’m walking down the streets where my great-grandfather paved some of these [sidewalks]?” And to have awareness of that. I don’t take that lightly. I’m sitting in the [Tenth Street Baptist Church] sanctuary where my maternal great-grandfather was the [fourth] pastor here and spoke, and helped build this edifice. ...I can speak as being from Camden and having ancestral ties back 140-plus years on my mother’s side.

That adds another, deeper sense of meaning to the work that I do. Because I’m standing on their shoulders, trying to not only preserve their legacy, preserve the work that they started and continue it on, and then share it with other people. ... It’s very impactful that I have that deep-rooted sense of purpose. And it gives me a great edge and confidence, because I know what I’m talking about.

An ultimate goal is for this city to have a museum. This city is long overdue to have a museum space that’s specifically dedicated to the history of Camden.

One of the things I’m excited to do is reclaiming [the Johnson Cemetery, where African Americans are buried]. Because to the naked eye, driving past it, you wouldn’t think it’s a cemetery. You would think it’s a park. So that’s a big component of my preservation plan is more interpretation as far as signage.

The state has the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail. That’s a new initiative. Thirty-two sites have been selected. Camden, [with] my expertise, will [have] two: Kaighn Avenue Baptist Church and the site of the former home of Rev. Alexander Heritage Newton. That’s just to start. In the next several months to a year, you’re going to see more historical markers.

All the people that are gonna be coming for [the country’s 250th birthday in] 2026 for Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell, Independence Mall, we want them to come over here, too. ...I am happy when a commemoration such as that occurs, because it draws awareness and attention. So you can bet that I’m going to have, whether it be educational programming, more [historical markers], to kind of coincide.

I’m looking forward to different platforms that I could utilize to reach people that generally wouldn’t be interested in history.

I think 2025 is going to be the year of partnership, the year of collaboration, the year of transformation.