Evolution of a Community: Tour of the Exhibit

Object Details

General: Title transcribed from physical asset (Evolution of a Community) and contents of video recording (tour of the exhibit).

Creator: Anacostia Neighborhood Museum; Hutchinson, Louise Daniel (19280603-20141012)
Names: Anacostia Community Museum; Anacostia Neighborhood Museum; Birney Elementary School; Douglass Hall (Washington, D.C.); United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands; Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969; Howard, O. O. (Oliver Otis), 1830-1909; MacArthur, Douglas, 1880-1964; Patton, George S. (George Smith), 1885-1945
Collection Creator: Anacostia Community Museum

Place: Anacostia (Washington, D.C.); Barry Farms (Washington, D.C.); Washington (D.C.); United States

Topic: African Americans; Communities; Neighborhoods; African American neighborhoods; Employment; Business enterprises; African American business enterprises; Schools; Segregation; Churches; African American churches; Housing; Veterans; Nacotchtank Indians; Social history

Creator: Anacostia Neighborhood Museum; Hutchinson, Louise Daniel (19280603-20141012)

See more items in: Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition Records; Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition Records / Series ACMA AV03-040: Evolution of a Community Audiovisual Records

Sponsor: Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).

Biographical / Historical: Evolution of a Community, an exhibit at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum from January 1972 though December 1972, presented the history of Anacostia from post-World War II to the present through photos, text, drawings, video tape programs, and a slide/tape show. Evolution of a Community Part II, also known as Anacostia Today, was on display at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum from March 1973 though July 1973. The exhibitions developed as a result oral histories collected from Anacostia residents.

Custodial History: Created for the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. Developed by historian Louise Daniel Hutchinson.

Citation: Evolution of a Community: Oral History of Anacostia, Exhibition Records AV03-040, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Collection Rights: 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.

Scope and Contents: Historian Louise Daniel Hutchinson leads tour of museum exhibit Evolution of a Community. The tour includes four stops: Douglass Hall (black shopping center), Old Birney School, a black home, and a black church. Prior to the tour, Hutchinson provides a history of Anacostia from its earliest beginnings when the Nacotchtank Indians, part of the Algonquian family, lived on the land now known as Anacostia until General Howard bought land, Barry Farms, to break up into lots to sell to free blacks through the Freedman's Bureau. During the tour, Hutchinson describes employment in the 1920s; segregation in schools, businesses, and theaters; the clearing of Tent/Shack City, where veterans lived, with tear gas and fire under the direction of Douglass MacArthur, George Patton, and Dwight Eisenhower in 1932; home life and items found in a black home in the 1920s; and the importance of the church to the spiritual and social lives of black people.; Tour of exhibit. Part of Evolution of a Community Audiovisual Records. Video recording quality: image drop out and skips in recording. Undated.

Series Restrictions: Use of the materials requires an appointment. Some items are not accessible due to obsolete format and playback machinery restrictions. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.