Anacostia Community Museum - Exhibitions

Exhibitions

Throughout its history, the museum's exhibitions have reflected the community of Anacostia, Washington, D.C., and often concerns seen throughout urban communities in the United States. African American history and art has also been showcased in exhibitions, including subjects such as immigration, slavery, civil rights, and music. The opening exhibition at the museum, in 1967, featured the reproduction of an Anacostia store front from 1890, a Project Mercury spacecraft, a theater, a small zoo, and a varied collection of natural history objects. The small zoo featured a parrot, named George, which was a gift from the National Zoo. George died in April, 1977. Other early exhibitions at the museum, when it was still called the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, included 1969's The Rat: Man's Invited Affliction, which examined rat infestations. The museum's bicentennial exhibition, Blacks in the Western Movement, focused on the stories of African Americans who explored and settled the American west. The exhibition traveled nationwide and was made into a documentary film. These early exhibitions, which often consisted of panel displays, were called "pasteboard exhibits," by director John Kinard. Community members in the early years frequently helped put together the exhibitions, along with staff such as exhibit designer James E. Mayo.

ACM started working with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) to create traveling exhibitions, which were the first major African American themed exhibitions at the Smithsonian. In 1977 the exhibition The Anacostia Story exhibited the history of the neighborhood from 1608 to 1930. Frederick Douglass, who lived in Anacostia, was the focus of The Frederick Douglass Years. The 1979 exhibition Out of Africa: From West African Kingdoms to Colonization was the first to make use of the museums budding permanent collection, and Chancellor Williams lectured. The museum closed for little over two months in, from November until January, 1980, re-opening with the exhibition Anna J. Cooper: A Voice from the South. To celebrate the centennial of the birth of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Smithsonian organized a institution wide series of events, with ACN organizing Mary McLeod Bethune and Roosevelt's Black Cabinet. Mercer Ellington, the son of Duke Ellington, filmed a public service announcement for the exhibition The Renaissance: Black Arts of the '20s. ACM focused on Washington, D.C.'s role in equal and civil rights in To Achieve These Rights: The Struggle for Equal Rights and Self-Determination in the District of Columbia, 1791-1978. The Washington region was a focus again with Footsteps from North Brentwood, which discussed the history of Prince George's County, Maryland.

In 2006, the ACM exhibition Reclaiming Midwives: Pillars of Community Support, discussed the roles of midwives in African American communities. ACM partnered with the Mexican Cultural Institute to produce The African Presence in Mexico. The 2010 exhibition Word, Shout and Song examined the work of Lorenzo Dow Turner and the Gullah language.