Washington, DC

The Washington Monument and the National Museum of African American History and Culture

The exterior of the African American Museum is beautiful, a lace-like skeleton
with a repeated inverted pyramid shape.

Before entering the museum, we walked around the Washington Monument.

Inside, the architecture is fascinating, with carefully designed views of the exterior cladding.
This corner is open to all four upper stories. There are also three floors underground.

A viewing area allows one to enjoy looking towards the Washington Monument.

Looking down the escalator, another view of the dramatic windows.

Art and History in the Museum

We spent around five hours in the museum, including a break for lunch in the Museum’s Sweet Home Café, which “showcases the rich culture and history of the African American people with traditional, authentic offerings as well as present-day food traditions.” The four of us enjoyed fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens, cornbread, coleslaw, carrot cake, and a few other soul-food choices. Later, in the cultural expressions area of the museum, we enjoyed a historic presentation of the history of food in the American Black community.

We began our museum tour at the beginning:  a very large exhibit detailing the history of chattel slavery and racial consciousness/prejudice in the 1400s. The museum has a vast number of exhibits about the emerging North American establishment of the slave trade and of slavery in both the North and the South. The Revolutionary War, the early 19th century, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the Twentieth Century are all covered in great detail. You learn about the economics, politics, personalities, and above all the suffering associated with slavery and the slave trade in centuries of history. It’s a challenging museum!

Separate exhibits describe the development of Black American music and art. The museum is vast and we didn’t see it all: you can’t see it all in just one day! And the museum is so popular that it’s hard to get the tickets (no charge because it’s one of our national Smithsonian museums). Here are a few photo highlights of our hours in the museum.

The history of slavery is illustrated with very dramatic murals.

A statue of the 18th century poet Phillis Wheatley, who was brought
from Africa as a slave, and sold in Boston at the age of seven.
Her white owners gave her a classical education, and she soon was recognized as an important poet.

The exhibit on the history of music by Black Americans has many entertaining illustrations.
This is Chuck Berry’s extraordinary red Cadillac!

In the music exhibit: lights, costumes, photos, sound tracks, and more.

An African statue that inspired the architect of the building, 

About the making of the museum:

“Lead designer David Adjaye and lead architect Philip Freelon, together with their architectural team Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup, won an international competition in April 2009 to design and deliver the museum to the people of the United States. Groundbreaking on the five-acre site took place in February 2012, with the Museum’s grand opening celebrated on September 24, 2016.” (Smithsonian Museum Documentation)

Discovering Artists that are New to Me

Among the many artists represented in the special exhibit “Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience,” I was particularly interested to learn about a 20th century artist named Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), who worked with Grant Wood when she was a student at the University of Iowa, and who did much of her work in Mexico.

 

This exhibit “looks at the ways in which visual art has long provided its own protest, commentary, escape and perspective for African Americans.” I found the selection of work to be very fascinating.

Elizabeth Catlett: “In Phillis Wheatley I proved intellectual equality in the midst of slavery," (1946)

Blog post © 2023 mae sander