An Afternoon of Legacy

There are stories a city tells about itself, and there are stories a city carries quietly, passed between generations like a piece of inherited silver, polished but never paraded. The legacy of Thomas Garrett belongs to the second kind. On the afternoon of May 9, 2026, the Quaker Hill Historic Preservation Foundation will gather at the Delaware History Museum to honor that legacy in the most fitting way imaginable: not with speeches, but with tea.

The invitation is simple. The weight behind it is not. Thomas Garrett. Wilmington abolitionist, Quaker, and confidant of Harriet Tubman, is believed to have shepherded more than two thousand enslaved men, women, and children to freedom through his home on Quaker Hill. He did so without fanfare, without political ambition, and at tremendous personal cost. When Wilmington's freed Black community presented him in 1866 with a magnificent silver service, engraved with gratitude, inscribed with his name, it was not a commemoration. It was a covenant. A neighborhood saying, in the most permanent material it could muster: we remember.

That same silver service, preserved for more than a century and a half, will be the centerpiece of the afternoon. Guests will sit in its company. Children will hear the story of why it exists. Wilmington will remember, again, in its own quiet way.

The Quaker Hill Historic Preservation Foundation has long worked to keep this neighborhood, one of Wilmington's most historically consequential, from disappearing into the background. Their stewardship is patient, almost monastic. They restore. They interpret. They convene. And every so often, they put the kettle on and remind a city of what it owes itself.

What makes this particular gathering remarkable is its modesty. The event is free. Children six and older are welcomed. Crafts and activities are arranged for younger guests. There will be special presentations on Garrett and Tubman, not lectures, but conversations, designed to make the history feel close enough to touch. Tea will be served. Mothers will be celebrated. The silver will be admired.

There is a quiet intentionality in its timing. Mother's Day weekend is a season of gathering, of tables set, of generations folded into one room. To pair that occasion with the memory of Thomas Garrett is to draw a line between two kinds of love: the love that raises a family, and the love that risks everything to give another family the chance to remain whole. Both, the foundation seems to be saying, deserve a place at the table.

For those who attend, the afternoon will likely feel less like an event and more like an inheritance, passed hand to hand, cup to cup, generation to generation. The silver will glint in the museum's careful light. The story will be told again, gently. And Wilmington, for one afternoon, will hold a piece of itself a little closer.

That, perhaps, is the truest form of preservation: not a glass case, but a shared room.

Event Details

Afternoon Tea Honoring Thomas Garrett

Hosted by the Quaker Hill Historic Preservation Foundation

Date

Saturday, May 9, 2026

Time

2:00 PM

Location

Delaware History Museum
504 N. Market Street, Wilmington, DE 19801

Admission

Free to the public · Donations encouraged

RSVP Deadline

May 5, 2026

Email

office@quakerhillhistoric.org

Phone

302-655-2500

Open to: Adults and children ages 6+. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Includes: Tea, crafts, and special guest presentations on Thomas Garrett and Harriet Tubman.