#nmaahc

[stoplookingup]

This original Uhura uniform is part of the Afrofuturism exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. The item on the left is the flight suit Trayvon Martin wore when he attended a program called Experience Aviation.

[africanamericanreports]

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will publish a dynamic new book Sept. 17 tracing the history of sports through photographs from the turn of the 20th century to the present day with Game Changers: Sports Photographs from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

[divalocity]

Beautiful-in-Person: Bisa Butler's quilted and appliquéd textile portrait of Harriet Tubman, based on the carte-de-visite photograph portrait of Harriet Tubman by Benjamin F. Powelson at the NMAAHC. #art #nmaahc #bisabutler #americanart #americanartist #herstorymakers #blackamericanheritage #blackhistorymonth #blackamericanhistory #travelwashingtondc #americanhistory #harriettubman #benjaminfpowelson #travelphotography #blackamericanartists (at Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) https://www.instagram.com/p/Co5ew0sunSc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jbfly46]

What is going on? These ideals were first Ethiopian, then Arab, then Greek.

[elailai94]

Happy International Women’s Day! Let’s celebrate the allies, pioneers and trailblazers who fought the good fight and are working towards an inclusive society for all! 🌺 #genderequality #inclusivesociety #iwd #womensday #happywomensday #happyinternationalwomensday #smithsonian #nmaahc #nationalmuseumofafricanamericanhistoryandculture #dc #washingtondc #america #us #usa #unitedstates #unitedstatesofamerica #northamerica #anationsstory #apeoplesjourney #discoverusa #discoverwashingtondc #exploreusa #explorewashingtondc #liveloveusa #mydccool #tourismusa #unitedstories #visittheusa #visitusa #visitwashingtondc (at Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpiOJKpLC34/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[protoslacker]

On what would be his 28th birthday the National Museum of African American History & Culture points to their collections showing how his life and death moved people to work for social justice.

[kerriclarkcreative]

Image from: washington.org Design Leadership's Cultural Parameters of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture

Over a century ago, in 1915, there was a call for a national museum to honor African American history. Yet, it wasn’t until 1998 that the legislative push gained momentum, leading to the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s authorization in 2003. With construction beginning in 2012, the museum finally opened in 2016, after years of persistent advocacy. This delay reflects the cultural parameters and systemic barriers that once marginalized Black history in the national narrative.

Today, the museum stands as a testament to resilience and a powerful symbol of cultural expression, sustainability, and storytelling. Incorporating key cultural parameters, its LEED Gold-certified design embraces spirituality and joy while honoring the challenging aspects of African American experience. The inverted step pyramid shape, inspired by a Yoruba crown, and the three stacked trapezoidal forms modeled after a sculpture by Olowe of Ise, connect the museum to African heritage. With roughly 60% of the building underground, the design acknowledges the hidden stories of African American history. In 2022, as the second-most visited Smithsonian museum, the NMAAHC resonates deeply with visitors, preserving history while inspiring forward progress.

[trascapades]

✨️ #ArtIsAWeapon

#MarvinGaye - my favorite musical artist of all time - was born 85 years ago today (April 2, 1939).

Gifted, flawed, spiritual, tormented, beautiful...

Caption reposted from @nmaahc What's a Marvin Gaye song that speaks to you?

#OnThisDay in 1939, singer Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. was born. The Washington, D.C. native developed an early love of music through the church, and by the 1960s came to be known as the #PrinceofSoul.

The son of a Hebrew Pentecostal minister, it was the Pentecostal Church that served as the context of his faith formation and creative musical genius. Gaye mastered the piano and drums as a child and caught the attention of Motown founder Berry Gordy, who hired him as a session drummer for the label working on songs for Stevie Wonder and The Supremes. Under the label, Gaye would enjoy a steady string of hits including “Stubborn Kinda Fellow” (1962), “I’ll Be Doggone” (1965), and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1968). As a major Motown artist, Gaye is credited as one of the sonic architects responsible for creating the label’s distinctive sound.

Described by Ebony as “intensely spiritual, almost mystical,” and seemingly in “pursuit of some ethereal other world” because of his preoccupation with religion and sexuality, Marvin Gaye’s artistry further complicated conventional notions of the holy and the profane. Alongside the strong religious and sexual sensibilities evidenced in later songs such as “Sexual Healing,” “Sanctified Lady,” and “Let’s Get It On,” Gaye’s 11th album, What’s Going On, is acclaimed for the socially conscious quality of his lyrical content. Themes explored on the album include an anti-war critique, ecology, love, sensuality, and community, all informed by his formative Hebraic-Pentecostal worldview.

Follow the link in our bio to learn more on our Searchable Museum.

#APeoplesJourney

📸 Photograph Credits:

Images 1 & 2 by Ed Caraeff @thebulletlisttrip Van Nuys, California March 28, 1976.

👈🏿

Images 3 & 4 by Isaac Sutton - reposted from @nmaahc - Johnson Publishing Company Archive. Courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

[keepersofnostalgia]

Big Band legend Erskine Hawkins photographed for Bluebird Records (an RCA Victor sub-label) sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s.

Hawkins and his Orchestra are quite popular on WINE-DOWN SUNDAYS - listen to previous episodes here: https://buff.ly/3tmMM7P

[NMAAHC - Digital Collections]

[mauricecherry]

The National Museum of African American History and Culture recently launched an online portal for their design collection. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/collection/design

Design collections at NMAAHC encompass graphic design, furniture design, fashion design, and architectural design, among other fields. The impact of African Americans in design is reflected in American material culture and the built environment we experience today.

My baby Revision Path is a part of the collection -- the first podcast to be in the Smithsonian's archives. (There's a pretty dope bio of me too.)

[rnettaunreeled]

Old-school Summertime

A Peoples Journey: Black Leisure Traditions

Photo:  Hot fun in the summertime, 1980, © Jamel Shabazz. 

Kicking off the summer with #APeoplesJourney to pools, BBQs and family reunions! From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, African Americans around the country sought leisure destinations where they could relax without the burden of racial oppression.

Photo: The Way of Life of the Northern Negro: Untitled Photograph of father and son at Lake Michigan 1946-1948, © Wayne F. Miller.

Photo: Outdoor Portrait of a Family Standing by a Picnic Table, H.C. Anderson.

Photo:  ©1955 Travelguide, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

Join us this month, as we amplify and explore black leisure traditions in the United States. And all month long, share with us your memories of the summer with #APeoplesJourney!

[jwarminsky]

Hip-Hop Block Party

Previewed the National Museum of African American History and Culture's annual event; this year the emphasis is on hip-hop's 50th anniversary.

[africanamericanreports]

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) recognizes the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court with a daylong public event Friday, May 17.

[yesdreamilyenchantingbouquet]

NMAAHC Recognizes the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) invites visitors to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington by experiencing Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” on view for a limited time, Aug. 7–Sept. 18, in the “Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom” gallery. The museum also offers three compelling exhibitions: “Defending Freedom,…

[art150class]

Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture Showcases Black History

For this assignment, I decided to follow the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). The stories they highlight are important to understanding the history of the United States more in depth and spotlight the diversity that has always been present in our nation. 

The NMAAHC publishes Instagram posts highlighting individual Black trailblazers throughout US history. Two examples of people the NMAAHC have posted about include Mary McLeod Bethune and Diahann Carroll, who were pioneers and proponents of diversity in their respective fields. 

Mary McLeod Bethune was a teacher who was appointed Director of Minority Affairs for the National Youth Administration under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was the first Black woman to head a federal agency and was part of Roosevelt’s “Black cabinet,” the group of FDR’s Black policy advisors which Bethune herself led. This was significant as this was during the Great Depression, a time where segregation still persisted in the US. Bethune also founded the National Council of Negro Women “to empower Black women concerned with social justice and human rights issues.”

Diahann Carroll was an American actress known for movie musicals such as Carmen Jones (1954) and the TV shows Julia (1968-71) and Dynasty (1984-1987). Julia, in which Carroll played a nurse, was significant to television history, as she was the first African-American lead character in a non-stereotypical role. For her role on Dynasty, where she played Dominique Deveraux, “Carroll immortalized Black female power.” 

A picture of Caroll as Julia and Marc Copage as Corey on the TV show Julia.

Bethune and Carroll are important to the history of the United States as they were trailblazers in their respective fields. They were Black female role models at a time when segregation still existed. It is important to have representation of all races and ethnicities in our culture, and Deborah Willis is furthering this with her mission of looking for photographs of Black people throughout US history. As she explains in the documentary Through a Lens Darkly, she was ”amazed and dismayed” there were no Black people in history textbooks, so she made it a goal to show the history of African-Americans through photography with Black people both in front and behind the camera. Her project has lasted over 35 years and is further exemplified in Picturing Us, where she shows pictures of African Americans throughout US history and explains its significance. 

The image Racoon Couple in Car in Picturing Us symbolizes “the celebration of Black life…and cultural achievement.” The photograph also celebrates Harlem as “a source of pride” for African Americans as it was a time of cultural, literary, and musical achievement. Racoon Couple relates to the NMAAHC’s photographic archive, including one of Duke Ellington, who was a prominent musician during the Harlem Renaissance. Many of his compositions, such as “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” have since become jazz standards. In the picture (which can be found in the citation section below), you can see the joy on his face as he plays the piano and the audience’s sheer happiness around him. Both Racoon Couple and the photo of Duke Ellington are a celebration of Black history in the United States. 

Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington perform “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1965. Both were influential figures in jazz. 

People like Deb Willis and institutions like the Smithsonian help expose us to important stories in history that may be otherwise untold. By highlighting important African American figures that have broken barriers and blazed trails, the NMAAHC shows us the celebration of Black pride throughout history. 

Works Cited (Listed Alphabetically)

Family Pictures USA, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, June 19, 2013, 7:49-8:46, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THZWSexAjgk.

Alice George, “Was the 1968 TV Show ‘Julia’ a Milestone or a Millstone for Diversity?,” Smithsonian Magazine, updated October 4, 2019, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/was-1968-tv-show-julia-milestone-or-millstone-180970198/#:~:text=Squarely%20situated%20at%20an%20intersection,American%20authenticity%20to%20win%20viewers. 

“Mary McLeod Bethune and Roosevelt's ‘Black Cabinet’”, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian, accessed July 19, 2023, https://anacostia.si.edu/exhibitions/mary-mcleod-bethune-and-roosevelts-black-cabinet%3Aevent-exhib-4309. 

National Museum of African American History and Culture (@nmaahc), photograph of Diahann Carroll, photograph by G. Marshall Wilson, Johnson Publishing Company Archive, courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, July 17, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/CuzDWHWPUbZ/. 

National Museum of African American History and Culture (@nmaahc), “Duke Ellington, 1959,” Instagram, photographed by William Lanier, Johnson Publishing Company Archive, courtesy J. Paul Getty Trust and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, April 29, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/Crnoi1dPcBE/. 

National Museum of African American History and Culture (@nmaahc), “Mary McLeod Bethune - Daytona Beach, Florida,” circa 1915, photo by William Ludlow Coursen, courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, July 10, 2023,  https://www.instagram.com/p/CuhByc0MP6D/. 

Deborah Willis, Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography (New York, The New Press, 1994), 8-9.

Picture/Video Credits

The Ed Sullivan Show, “Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing),"” YouTube, uploaded June 26, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myRc-3oF1d0. 

NBC Television, “Diahann carroll julia 1969,” circa 1969, uploaded August 31, 2011, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diahann_carroll_julia_1969.JPG. 

James Vanderzee, Racoon Couple in Car, 1932, courtesy Donna Vanderzee, from Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography (New York, The New Press, 1994), 7.

[aletdownsquid]

"Spirit in the Dark" examines Black religious life through a selection of photographs from the Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony, Jet and Negro Digest.

The images in the exhibition spotlight noteworthy individuals — including religious and political leaders, musicians, authors, athletes, activists and educators — and are supported by an array of objects from the museum’s collection, many on display for the first time.