Other Smithsonian Museums

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the 19^th and newest museum in an institution more than 150 years old. Other Smithsonian museums for many years have held an array of material related to the history and culture of African Americans. The various specialties of each museum—art, ethnographic objects, archives, historic artifacts and photographs—are represented here. This selected sample of collections gives you a hint of the fascinating and unique objects collected by the Smithsonian.

Greensboro Lunch Counter, National Museum of American History

On February 1, 1960, four African American college students, Ezell A. Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond sat down at this "whites only" lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused and when asked to leave, the students remained in their seats in protest. For six months hundreds of students, civil rights organizations, churches, and members of the community joined the protest and boycotted the store. Their commitment ultimately led to the desegregation of the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter on July 25, 1960. Their peaceful sit-down was a watershed event in the struggle for civil rights and helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South. The counter can be found at the National Museum of American History.

Untitled, Kirksey Photo Studio, Percival Bryan Collection, Anacostia Community Museum

Gelatin silver print, 1947

Gift of Percival Bryan

Many important artifacts—such as letters, land deeds, birth certificates and other family documents, newspapers and news clippings, quilts, clothing, and personal mementos—survive in family homes, preserved and passed on from generation to generation. It is the mission of the Anacostia Community Museum to collect these artifacts of everyday life, such as grocery receipts, bills, and personal letters. These materials are often of significant historical value, for they not only connect each of us with our family heritage and the day-to-day struggles of our ancestors, but also give us insight into the broader currents of history.

This photograph forms part of the Percival Bryan Collection and is an illustration of artifacts found in family homes. Since the beginning of photography, families have used the medium to document and preserve significant events in their lives and communities. While the majority of family photographs are taken by local photographers and family members, works by famous photographers are often found in family collections.

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, African American Design Archive

Preening Posture with Ball, c. 1947, James C. Watkins

Raku-fired Double-walled Caldron4

The African American Design Archive at the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City was created in 1991 in response to the growing need for information about, and a fuller awareness of, all people working in American design. The archive assists in this endeavor by highlighting African American designers who have made important contributions in the fields of architecture and interior design, industrial and graphic design, textiles and wall coverings, ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, and furniture. James C. Watkins is a ceramicist and associate professor in the College of Architecture, Texas Tech University in Lubbock. He was one of sixty-five American craftsmen invited to contribute to the first permanent White House Craft Collection in 1993.

Rattle, Woven cane filled with wari beans

The National Museum of Natural History is dedicated to understanding the natural world and our place in it. The museum's collections serve as one of the world's great repositories of scientific and cultural heritage, documenting the cultural and biological diversity of humankind, past and present. The ethnology collection is comprised of a quarter of a million objects representing 19^th, 20^th and 21^st century cultures from around the globe, including Africa and African cultures in the Americas.

This rattle, made of woven cane and filled with wari beans, is known as an "ericunde" used by the Abakwa cult of Cuba. The Abakwa is a secret society with historical links to the Calabar region of West Africa and this object is likely an early version of an ericunde.

Early Morning Work, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Artist: William H. Johnson, Oil on burlap, 1940

Gift of the Harmon Foundation

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is dedicated exclusively to the art and artists of the United States. All regions, cultures, and traditions are represented in the museum's collections, research resources, exhibitions, and public programs. The museum has long championed works that were overlooked by many collectors, museums, and art historians and today it holds a notable array of more than 2,000 works by African American artists.

William H. Johnson studied art in New York and spent a decade in Europe before returning in 1939 to teach at the Harlem Community Art Center. There he adopted a primitive, almost folk style and began to paint scenes of African American life. The spindly limbs, large hands, and oval heads of this farm family resemble forms in African sculpture that Johnson sketched. His subject—sharecroppers working marginal land—is based on memories of Johnson's childhood in rural South Carolina.

Some of the American Art Museum's works formed the National Museum of African American History and Culture's inaugural exhibition, Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits, which is on a national tour until April 2012.