PUBLIC HISTORY

The Black Portuguese Sailors Project

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During the eighteenth century, all sailors in Portugal had to register with the Junta do Comércio (the board of trade) in Lisbon before embarking on voyages around the world. The detailed records of the Junta can now be found in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. This project involves transcribing, translating, and analyzing 44 volumes of logbooks dating from 1767 to 1788 that document Black and African sailors registered in the Junta's records. Our research focuses on ships destined for African ports and the African and Black sailors that made up their crews, including men working as sailors, cooks, carpenters, and even priests. 
Select Publications:
  • Crutcher, Megan and Lloyd Belton. “‘They Do Not Have Physiognomies of Their Own’: Tracking Racialization of Maritime Professions in the Eighteenth-Century Portuguese Empire.” Journal of Social History (Jan. 2025): doi:10.1093/jsh/shaf001
  • Crutcher, Megan. “Floating Households, Fluid Selves: Racial Identity, Household Dynamics, and Life at Sea in the 18th-Century Luso-Atlantic.” In The Archaeology of Households from the 21st Century to the Neolithic, eds. Joel Santos and Susanna Pacheco. Bloomsbury. Forthcoming: 2026.

The Mariner's Mirror Podcast: African Canoemen

Pittsburgh Refugee Stories Oral History Initiative

​Why do people from all corners of the Earth seek refuge in America? The Pittsburgh Refugee Stories Oral History Project aimed to understand the refugee crisis from individuals who have survived it. Understanding the condition of settled refugees in America provides a unique socio-cultural lens on our identities and values as Americans, refugees, Africans, students, workers, families, and others. This oral history project partnered with refugees from central Africa to better understand experiences, values, and identities in ways that are accessible to participants, their families, and communities as full partners. 

The August Wilson House

Pittsburgh-based architecture firm Pfaffmann + Associates brought me on as a preservation and public history consultant in 2019 for their rehabilitation project of the August Wilson House. The late playwright August Wilson spent his childhood in the back apartment of a home in Pittsburgh's Hill District. Together, we developed an interpretive plan and conservation plan for the two-room space and especially for the closet in the space which had layers of intact wallpaper from the period of study. The closet was developed as an archaeological exhibit and conservation of the wallpaper was undertaken with conservator Chantal Bernicky. I gained experience developing historic structures reports, feasibility studies, and national register nominations with the firm. The project was completed in 2022 and a multidisciplinary, urban artists colony opened in the space. The project was managed by the August Wilson Center for African American Culture for relatives of August Wilson (est. 2008) and funded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

​Other projects I managed with Pfaffmann + Associates from 2019-2020 included:
  • Preliminary study and Keystone Grant application for the Cambria Ironworks in Johnstown, PA;
  • ​Keystone Grant application and historic report for the Blairsville Armory, Blairsville PA; 
  • Interpretive plan for the Ateleta Beneficial Society in Pittsburgh, PA;
  • Hypothetical redesign proposal for the Monumento al Discubrimiento de America in Madrid Spain;
  • Interpretive plan and historic report for 2400 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh PA, which was later featured in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; 
  • Interpretive plan for the August Wilson House with AWH Interpretive Planning Committee and Brocade Studio of Richmond, VA.

Photos from Before: 2019

Photos from After: 2022

A Message of Liberation ​(2020)

How do religious entities welcome LGBTQ+ individuals, and in turn, how do people from these diverse backgrounds shape religious institutions in light of the complicated history of queerness and Christianity? This film explored these historical questions through creative interpretation of historical data, oral histories, and contemporary activism.
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​The film was featured in a conference session about how moving images, visual images, and film allow us to interpret and mediate complex histories of social justice issues to public audiences. The session, "The Historian's Gaze," can be found here.

Museum Education and Outreach

THE FRICK PITTSBURGH
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As a Docent at The Frick Pittsburgh Car and Carriage Museum, I engaged in research and reading for 20 hours of training and preparation to carry out 45-60 minute tours of the exhibit to groups of 2-30 guests of all ages and backgrounds.

​I also created an Education Program plan for The Frick Pittsburgh's Impressionists exhibit as part of Museum Education and Public Programming with Amanda Gillen at Duquesne University.
CARNEGIE MUSEUMS OF PITTSBURGH

During the 2018 summer camp season, I was a Post-Camp Supervisor for summer camps at the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. In this role, I managed a staff of 5 camp leaders to supervise summer camp educational activities and field trips for over 50 children ages 5-13.

​As a conservation technician, I managed a visible lab space where visitors learned about conservation of our millions of collections and observed ongoing treatments.

Archives and Curation

QUARACCHI ARCHIVES:  COLLEGIO DI SANT' ISIDORO 
First and only assessment, cataloguing, and arrangement of the Quaracchi Archives collections in Rome, Italy. ​​
SECTION OF EDUCATION: CARNEGIE MUSEUMS
​As curating intern of the education collections, I created a full registry and database of the collections, assessing their conservation, curation, and current management and use.
SECTIONS OF CONSERVATION & HERPETOLOGY: CARNEGIE MUSEUMS
Digitized documents and photographs from the conservation archives, from 1970-present. Consulted on practices, sources, and methods of archival collection processing in absence of a formal museum archivist role. 
EXHIBIT PLAN
​Exhibit Plan, "Culture and Clay: Africans, Cultural Exchange, and Colonoware in Early America." Written for History of the Atlantic World with Dr. Holly Mayer, Duquesne University. 
DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Archival processing for new accessions to the special collections of the World Phenomenology Center at Duquesne University.​
KELSO MUSEUM OF NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY: PITTSBURGH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
​Evaluated exhibits and collection management, storage, curation, and conservation of large archaeological collection at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.