Ralph Appelbaum Associates

In This Place grounds visitors in the historic and contemporary significance of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s location in Cincinnati, a city shaped by its position on the banks of the Ohio River at the crossroads of freedom and enslavement. The Freedom Center functions as a museum of conscience, an education hub, and a convener of dialogue, using its powerful setting to explore freedom, equality, activism, citizenship, and advocacy across time. Cincinnati’s history as a borderland—between North and South, free and unfree—provides a critical lens for examining the nation’s enduring struggles with race, power, and justice.

An immersive media environment uses the Ohio River as both subject and metaphor, placing visitors within the flow of this contested landscape. Interactive media tables introduce key themes, map Underground Railroad routes, and reveal the risks faced by freedom seekers and their allies, offering essential context at the start of the museum experience.

The exhibition’s visual language reinforces its narrative goals. Color palettes draw inspiration from Aminah-Brenda Lynn Robinson’s RagGonNon tapestry, Black Panther Party ephemera, and Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series. Vivid yellows, purples, blues, and greens evoke creativity, resilience, and balance. In In This Place, watery blue light washes over the space, recalling the paths freedom seekers traveled across land and water.

Artifacts spanning the 1800s to the 2020s—from shackles and Jim Crow signage to civil rights buttons and Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves—trace the legacy of resistance into the present. As the entry point to the Freedom Center, the exhibition honors local communities, activates the power of place, and affirms the Center’s vision for inclusive freedom locally and globally.