Object Details
- Local Numbers
- AV002927
- Names
- Bethlehem Baptist Church (1872-) (Washington, D.C.)
- Birney Elementary School
- Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church (Washington, D.C.)
- Banks, James, 1920-2005
- Blake, Anita B., 1894-1994
- Donnelly, Irene
- Shipley, Earl R., 1907-1992
- St. Philip's Episcopal Church
- Collection Creator
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Place
- Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)
- Barry Farms (Washington, D.C.)
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Topic
- African American women
- African Americans
- Frederick Douglas
- African American families
- Community Organizations
- Anacostia Neighborhood Museum
- exhibit
- See more items in
- Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition Records
- Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition Records / Series 2: Interviews
- Sponsor
- Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
- Extent
- 1 Sound recording ((1 sound cassette (00:46:18)))
- 1 Sound recording ((1 sound disk CD-R (00:46:18). digital, 16-bit 44.1 KhZ))
- 1 Sound recording ((1 sound disk CD-R (00:46:18). digital, 16-bit 44.1 KhZ))
- 1 Sound recording ((1 data disk DVD-R digital, 24-bit 96kHz WAV.)))
- Date
- 1970- 1971 March 19
- Container
- Box 1, Folder 32
- Box 4, Cassette 29
- Box 5, Disk 29
- Archival Repository
- Anacostia Community Museum Archives
- Type
- Archival materials
- Audio
- Sound recordings
- Oral histories (document genres)
- Collection Citation
- Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition Records, 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.
- Genre/Form
- Oral histories (document genres)
- Scope and Contents note
- Anita Blake, an African American woman born in 1894, and her friend Irene Donnelly, an African American woman born in 1888, discuss growing up in Anacostia and the changes in the neighborhood after they left. Blake lived in Anacostia from birth until 1917 when she got married. She was educated at Birney Elementary School and finished high school across the river. Donnelly lived in Anacostia from birth to 1902 and attended Birney Elementary School before leaving the neighborhood to go to a Catholic school in Virginia. They discuss how most families typically had two parents and no more than six children, lived in homes they built, and gardened for vegetables and fruits. Horse and buggy were the most common type of transportation and most men worked near the Capitol. Blake and Donnelly speak about how most families attended church (and still do) with the biggest churches being Campbell AME Church, Bethlehem Baptist Church, and St Philip's Church. They explain that there was little interaction between races in the neighborhood, although certain stores catered to all races and the only local doctor was a white man living in Uniontown. Neither Blake nor Donnelly participated in community organizing, but they list several prominent members and families of the community, including James Banks, Earl Shipley, John Wilson, the Dale family, and the Hamilton family. Blake also talks about her family ancestry, including her grandmother, Emily Edmonson, an abolitionist, who was a part of the Pearl incident to free herself and seventy-seven other enslaved people. Edmonson also maintained a close friendship with Frederick Douglass in Anacostia where Blake's family settled before she was born. Anita Blake and Irene Donnelly were interviewed on January 7, 1971, by an unnamed volunteer or staff member at the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum (now the Anacostia Community Museum). Digital audio files include white noise and static; interviewee can be heard clearly for most parts.
- Restrictions
- Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
- Record ID
- ebl-1698438000635-1698438001004-0
