Right from the Start

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Coyle
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American History ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
African American History ◽  
National Museum ◽  
The Future ◽  
Digital Collection ◽  
The Impact

Before opening, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture established a program to create digital collection records and surrogates, which play a critical role in collection care, collection accessibility, and enhancing the meaning of collections. The program is off to a good start because it supports the museum’s mission, the museum has established a dedicated “Digi Team,” the program has leadership buy-in and financial support, and other Smithsonian units have been generous with time and expertise. Also explored in this article are digitization program activities and results, the impact of digitization, and plans for the future.

James Oliver Horton, 1943–2017

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melani McAlister
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
American History ◽  
African American History ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Us History ◽  
Local Branch ◽  
Gathering Place

In October 2017, hundreds of faculty, friends, and former students gathered at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to remember James Oliver “Jim” Horton. It was a fitting gathering place. As the museum’s director, Lonnie Bunch, commented, Jim’s legacy is everywhere at the museum, from the fact that several of his former doctoral students are now curators to the foundational commitment of the museum itself: that African American history is not a local branch of US history but integral to its core. Jim always insisted in his lectures and classes and on his many TV appearances and public engagements that “American history is African American history.” 

REPORT FROM THE FIELD

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-22
Author(s):  
Phillip Seitz
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Men ◽  
American History ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
History Education ◽  
African American History ◽  
Trauma Recovery ◽  
Interdisciplinary Project ◽  
Qualitative Feedback ◽  
The Impact

History and Reconstruction is an interdisciplinary project to assess the impact of African American history education for black men. Under the theory of trauma recovery, leading scholars of African American history worked with a group of ten ex-offenders, supported by the services of a psychologist and an African American cultural expert and storyteller. Results based on psychological testing and qualitative feedback showed that history can be a catalyst for personal development and transformation. It also demonstrated that difficult history can be taught and assimilated for audience benefit. History and Reconstruction was supported by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.

2017 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-161
Author(s):  
Joanne Pope Melish ◽  
Marcia Chatelain ◽  
Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American History ◽  
African American History ◽  
National Museum

Afro-Latinidad in the Smithsonian’s African American Museum Spaces

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-291
Author(s):  
Ariana A. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
American History ◽  
African American History ◽  
National Museum ◽  
American Museum

The nearly fifty-year gap between the establishment of Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum (ACM) and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) created a difference in the museums’ central narratives about Blackness and the inclusion of Afro-Latinidad. The Anacostia emerged in 1967 as part of the Black museum movement. It has historically framed Blackness as DC-based African Americanness with periodic inclusion of Afro-Latinidad. The first object in the collection of the NMAAHC is from Ecuador, signaling an inclusive representation of Black identities that foundationally includes Afro-Latinidad.

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