Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Names New Director

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford has hired Dr. Briann G. Greenfield as its new executive director. She will begin June 18.

Katherine D. Kane will retire May 11 after 20 years as director of the historic house museum, which was once home to the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Since 2014, Greenfield has been executive director of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Prior to that, for 13 years, she was professor of history at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, as well as the founding director of Connecticut Central State University’s masters in public history program, which trained emerging museum professionals.

Greenfield holds a doctorate in American civilization and a master’s in American civilization/museum studies from Brown University and a bachelor’s in history from University of New Hampshire. She was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at Winterthur Museum in Delaware and has published scholarly and popular history works. She received a 2010 Board of Trustees Research Award from CCSU.

Of her appointment at Stowe, Greenfield said: “No other organization of its kind uses history and literature so effectively to illuminate contemporary conditions and strengthen our pluralistic society.”

The Stowe Center just put the finishing touches on a renovation years in the making, which upgraded the infrastructure, spruced up the historical rooms and converted some historical rooms into contemporary exhibit spaces that emphasize the modern-day relevance of Stowe’s themes. harrietbeecherstowe.org.