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Anacostia Community Museum Archives
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
Summary
- Collection ID:
- ACMA.03-027
- Creators:
-
Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
- Dates:
-
1942-1998
- Languages:
-
Collection is inEnglishandSpanish, with some material inFrench.
- Physical Description:
-
21.6 Cubic feetconsisting of 17 cartons, 2 oversized boxes.
- Repository:
These records document the planning, organizing, execution, and promotion of an exhibition exploring the immigration of people of African descent from Central and South America and the Caribbean to the Washington Metropolitan Area. The show was organized and hosted by the Anacostia Museum from August 21, 1994 through August 7, 1995. Materials include correspondence, research files, exhibit script, administrative records, brochures, press coverage, education packets, loan agreements, floor plans, and catalogues.
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
The records of the Black Mosaic exhibition presented by the Anacostia Community Museum measure 21.6 cubic feet and date from 1942 to 1998, with the bulk of material dating from 1990 to 1995. The records include administrative records, publications, research files, floor plans, exhibit text drafts, oral history transcripts, and project files for programs coordinated for or tangentially with the Black Mosaic Exhibit.
Administrative records include advisory board member lists, meeting minutes, agendas, grant proposals, project reports and assessments, correspondence, training material for museum volunteers and docents, and assorted notes. Publications within the series directly relate to the Black Mosaic Exhibit and the Anacostia Community Museum. Correspondence includes both internal correspondence and those with local community members.
Writings and notes were previously scattered throughout the collection have been collocated within the Administrative Records series, and a majority are undated. The notes cover topics ranging from administrative activities to exhibit and research planning. Included are printed documents, scrap paper, and spiral-bound notebooks.
The research files contain background information about numerous immigrant communities within Washington D.C. The community research files were originally organized by country, continent, or region of origin, and then later by subjects that coordinated with the exhibit's designated themes. This organization method has largely been maintained. Research files include scholarly articles, news clippings, event programs, compiled bibliographies, and material related to the study of museology.
The exhibit files include floor plan layouts, photocopies of images, interview transcripts, exhibit literature, and extensive exhibit text drafts. Drafts of the exhibit's text include notes throughout multiple editing stages. Additionally, copies of flip books for different thematic sections of the Black Mosaic exhibit are included and are organized alphabetically by title. Other exhibit literature present is primarily in English with one French copy present.
The project files include training material for collecting oral histories and documenting community folklife, conference records, event records, and records pertaining to related projects at the Anacostia Community Museum. Concurrent projects supporting the exhibit include the Black Mosaic community newsletter and an educational curriculum project. Additional project records that thematically overlap with the Black Mosaic exhibit but extend beyond the timeframe of the formal exhibit are present also.
Arrangement
Arrangement
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D.C. exhibition records are arranged in four series:
Series 1: Administrative Records
Series 2: Research Files
Series 3: Exhibit Files
Series 4: Project Files
Historical Note
Historical Note
The exhibit Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D.C. was curated by the Anacostia Community Museum's supervisory curator Portia James, and was open at the Anacostia Community Museum from August 1994 to August 1995. The exhibition explored the immigration of people of African descent from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean to the Washington Metropolitan Area.
Topics addressed in the exhibition include migration, situations faced by Black immigrants, the maintenance of relationships with places of origin, community events and cultural performances, public and private expressions of culture, commodification of culture for economic support, and the expression of multiple identities. Some intentions of the exhibit were to provide forums for discussing culture and identity, provide resources for people learning about communities in the Washington Metro area, and to be a model to other museums and cultural institutions for understanding and interpreting similar immigration and settlement patterns.
The exhibit was designed to be experienced with broader cultural concepts being introduced towards the external part of the exhibit, while personal stories could be experienced further in. Over 100 oral history interviews featured prominently in the exhibit where interviewed individuals explained their immigration experience and how they've adapted to life in the area. The exhibit also included mounted photographs, artifacts, music, and conversations. Artifacts included passport photos, tickets, family photographs, and letters. The exhibit's text displayed in three languages: English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. There were additional exhibition guides provided in Brazilian Portuguese, French, and the Ghanaian languages of Ga, Twi, Akan, and Ewe.
Coupled with the exhibit, the museum coordinated an extensive series of programs to engage various communities in the exploration of issues and traditions. These programs included creating newsletters and a photograph exhibit to keep the community up to date about the progression of the exhibit, working with performance groups, creating multi-institutional partnerships in order to develop more effective methods of collecting oral histories, and collaborating and modeling for the CFPCS African Immigrant Communities project.
Administration
Author
Kendra Jae
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives at the Anacostia Community Museum implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of existing collections. For the records of the Black Mosaic exhibit, minimal processing included arrangement to the folder level, based on prior processing and preservation action, with retention of the pre-existing arrangement when possible, if applicable. Otherwise, an order was imposed by the Processing Archivist. Some materials were consolidated to eliminate excess bulk but items within folders were not arranged further. The guide may or may not include a more refined lists of folder contents. Non-archival housing was replaced for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed. Addition photographic and audiovisual material was not processed at this time but has been retained by the Anacostia Community Museum Archives for internal use only.
Minimal level processing and machine-readable finding aid completed by Kendra Jae, 2017. The initial collection record was produced by Carrie Gehrer in 2011.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Records of Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity Among Black Immigrants in Washington, D.C. Exhibition were created by the Anacostia Community Museum.
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access note
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Preferred Citation
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C.
Exhibition Records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.More Information
Other Finding Aids note
Other Finding Aids note
Original box list in accession file.
Keywords
| Keyword Terms | Keyword Types | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Metropolitan Area | Geographic | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Immigrants -- United States -- Exhibitions | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Transcripts | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Museum exhibits | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Color slides | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Exhibition records -- 1990-2004 | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Exhibit scripts | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Contact sheets | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Photographic prints | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Correspondence | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Anacostia Community Museum | Corporate Name | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Repository Contact
Anacostia Community Museum Archives
1901 Fort Place, SE
Washington, D.C. 20020
ACMArchives@si.edu
