Welcome to another edition of Museum Monday travelers!
For today’s post, Jeff is sharing with you the newest museum to open its doors in our nation’s capital. I hope you enjoy!
An educational trip to Washington, D.C. by necessity includes at least a day of walking through the many wonderful museums of the Smithsonian Institute. Opening a few months ago is the latest addition to our nation’s greatest collection of centers of artifacts and memorabilia, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Located on the National Mall within eye sight of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, the museum has close to thirty-seven thousand objects related to such subjects as community, family, the arts, religion, civil rights, slavery and segregation. It will undoubtedly become a required stop on every student tour of Washington, D.C.
Students who are on an educational tour of Washington, D.C. will learn of the hundred year struggle to establish a federally owned museum featuring African American history and culture. The modern effort began in the 1970s and finally led to authorization of the museum under President George W. Bush who shared a famous hug with First Lady Michelle Obama at the dedication and opening in September. African American history began here in 1619 with the arrival of ship born slaves before the Mayflower even set sail from England and culminated with the election of Barack Obama in 2008.
Artifacts housed at the museum include items owned by Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, and Gabby Douglas, among others. A Jim Crow era railroad car, segregated drinking fountain, and feet and wrist manacles shock visitors into imagining the horrors inflicted upon an entire race of people. Every classroom will benefit from visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture on their next student trip to Washington, D.C.
Have a great Monday,
Jeff.