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[music] [pause]
GLORIA: Hi, I'm Gloria.
ELLY: And I'm Elly. Welcome to the Anacostia
Community Museum. The Smithsonian's only community museum.
GLORIA: It's located in southeast Washington
DC and opened in 1967, over 40 years ago.
ELLY: This Museum demonstrates and explores
contemporary, community life by looking at
objects of importance to the communities.
GLORIA: Like this one right here - from local artist Uzikee Nelson.
UZIKEE: This is a weathering steel sculpture
that's in tribute to Thurgood Marshall
ELLY: Uzikee made this as a tribute to Thurgood
Marshall who successfully argued in the supreme
court to de-segregate public schools. And
went on to become the very first African American Supreme Court
Justice.
UZIKEE: You are partially right about that
but I also did it for ancestral memory.
ELLY: What do you mean by ancestral memory?
UZIKEE: That's your memory that's in your
DNA when you were born. It is a difficult task
to try to understand yourself in the present
without examining your past.
ELLY: And that's what we can do inside the
museum, right?
UZIKEE: That's definitely correct.
GLORIA: Let's go take a look inside.
[music]
[pause]
GLORIA: Oh! Excellent. They have a carte de
visite.
ELLY: A cart de what?
GLORIA: A carte de visite. It was used like a business card or a sports card
might
be used today - but they didn't have statistics
on the back.
ELLY: That's good because that small card
could not fit all of Douglass' accomplishments on the back of it.
GLORIA: Like how he taught himself how to
read and write.
ELLY: Or how he escaped slavery and became
one of the nation's leading abolitionist orators
and advocate for woman's rights.
GLORIA: Or how he started several abolitionist
newspapers risking his own freedom to secure freedom for all blacks.
ELLY: His house is just down the block from
this museum.
GLORIA: Do you think they have more photographs
of Frederick Douglass?
ELLY: Yeah, we can ask the archivist who's
going to show us behind the scenes.
[music]
ELLY: What do we have here?
GLORIA: Those look like opera glasses and
those are music sheets. Maybe the first African
American opera house.
JENNIFER: That's a pretty good guess
ELLY: Wait a minute, I recognize the person in that photo. That's Madame
Evanti.
JENNIFER: Madame Evanti was her stage name.
But her full name was Emily Lillian Evans Tibbs.
GLORIA: Is that someone I should know?
ELLY: I know about her because my family
loves opera. She was the first African American
to sing grand opera with an organized company
in europe. She made her professional
debut in 1925 in Nice France. She was known
for her captivating beauty, her stage presence
and her dynamic performances. Here's a program
from one of here performances in Italy.
GLORIA: What about this one? It's in English.
JENNIFER: Evanti returned to the United
States as an accomplished opera singer in the
1930's. Despite being a renowned singer, she
still faced racism. In one case the director
of the Metropolitan Opera invited her to audition
but the racist board refused to hire
her. Despite the obstacles she faced, Evanti
served as a good-will ambassador, sung at
the White House, composed several patriotic
songs and performed with the National *** Opera Company.
ELLY: Is this her piano?
JENNIFER: Yes, this is the piano that she
practiced on at home.
GLORIA: So what's next on our behind the
scenes tour?
JENNIFER: We're going to visit upstairs
in the archives storage room.
[music]
ELLY: So what are you going to show us?
GLORIA: Something from Fredrick Douglas
I hope.
JENNIFER: Why do you want to see Fredrick
Douglas artifacts?
ELLY: That's sort of a strange question.
Let's see - because he's famous and a hero.
It's like wanting to see Lincoln's top hat
or the Declaration of Independence or Hank Aarons bat.
GLORIA: Yeah, there's that but I also think
I really want to understand the life story of Fredrick Douglas better.
JENNIFER: Now here are a couple artifacts
that'll make you understand Douglas's life
better. Right here I have a Fredrick Douglas
calling card.
GLORIA: Wow.
ELLY: Look. A first addition of THE NARRATIVE
OF THE LIFE OF FREDRICK DOUGLAS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE.
ELLY: No way!
GLORIA: Way!
JENNIFER: I have here an image of Fredrick
Douglas on the USS Tennessee. In 1871 then
president Ulysses S. Grant appointed Douglas
to the commission investigating annexing Santo
Domingo to the United States. This image shows
Douglas and the other commissioner returning
home from the island.
ELLY: So along with everything else he did
he also served our country internationally?
JENNIFER: Yes, and what these artifacts
allow us to do is to tell a more complete story
of Douglas's life.
GLORIA: Ok, I'm ready for more!
JENNIFER: Not with me but you can learn
more with the Historiar.
[music] [pause]
GAIL: Welcome toe belly box ladies! This
is where we carefully store, preserve and
catalog the items in our collection.
ELLY: It's so cold in here!
GAIL: Well it has to be. Objects, like people,
like to be cool and dry.
GLORIA: Ok, so we've seen opera glasses
from Elaine Evanti and a business card of
Douglas's but what story does this hold?
GAIL: The wood plane is one of my favorite
pieces in the collection. It tells us about
community and craftsmanship. Carpenters used
planes to use and shape wood.
ELLY: Who's plane is this?
GAIL: This plane was made by Ceasar Chelor.
Ceasar Chelor had been a slave in Massachusetts,
was freed in 1752, and he becomes the first
documented African American toolmaker.
ELLY: How to do you find out about a woodplane
maker who lived more than 250 years ago?!
GAIL: Research takes us to court records,
wills, church lists, cemetery records and
the census. But the tool itself gives us valuable
information.
GLORIA: Like what?
GAIL: Well, first of all we can tell it's
a wood plane. But this one is really special
because as you can see on the side we have
the name of maker and the place where he lived.
That gives us clues that we can follow up.
Research also tells us there are several hundred
Chelor planes still in existence. So we know that
he was a very prolific toolmaker and had a
thriving business. But this one is particularly
rare because it carries his full name and
the full place name where he worked. Turns
out then to be one of the earliest signed
and documented artifacts in African American
history.
GLORIA: I thinking I'm starting to understand
how these everyday objects are fitting together
to tell a complete story.
ELLY: I think your ready to go-go.
GLORIA: No, I think I'll stay here a little
while longer.
ELLY: No you won't, let's go-go!
[music] [pause]
GLORIA: Ah, Go-Go.
ELLY: Yeah, this is a great room in the
museum.
GLORIA: Yeah, check it out. They have a
Gibson Guitar from Chuck Brown, like the godfather
of go-go music. I bet this is the only museum
in the woworld with a Chuck Brown guitar.
ELLY: Probably, since go-go music is huge in
the DC area.
GLORIA: And Chuck actually played at The Anacostia Museum.
ELLY: Yeah, things like this are happening
all the time at the museum and with the changing
exhibit hall, there's always something new
happening all the time.
GLORIA: There have been many exhibits over
the years, including ones like the Harlem
Renaissance, the Black West, African American
Scientists and Inventors, and Black Baseball in DC.
[music]
GLORIA: And next time you come some that
were behind the scenes will be out front on
display. You need to check out the website
to see which ones will be on display.
ELLY: The Anacostia Museum is always changing.
There are thousands of pieces in their collection
and thousands of stories to go along with
them.
GLORIA: I'll be coming back to the Anacostia
Museum and I hope you'll have a great visit
as well.
[music]