The Penn & Slavery Project: The Augmented Reality Campus Tour

ABSTRACT The Penn & Slavery Project: The Augmented Reality Campus Tour explores the University of Pennsylvania’s historical ties to slavery through a student-driven public history initiative. Originally launched as an undergraduate research seminar in 2017, the Project uncovered evidence of Penn’s deep financial, educational, and ideological entanglements with American slavery—contradicting the university’s previous denials. The research revealed how Penn faculty and trustees enslaved people, sought donations from prominent enslavers, and advanced scientific racism that shaped medical and anthropological thought for generations. To bring these findings to a broader audience, students created a mobile Augmented Reality (AR) campus tour that reinterprets campus landmarks with immersive digital storytelling. Stops on the tour highlight overlooked figures like Caesar, an enslaved man who labored for Penn, and expose the hidden histories behind statues, buildings, and scientific collections. The AR experience confronts institutional complicity and calls users to critically reflect on how slavery shaped not only the university but also broader American society. Despite limited institutional support, the Penn & Slavery Project continues to transform historical scholarship into public engagement, challenging dominant narratives and training new generations of historians to tell fuller, more truthful stories.