The Anacostia Oral History Project Collection contains 39 oral history interviews with 42 individuals who either grew up in or spent a considerable amount of time in the neighborhood. Interviewees discuss their memories of Anacostia dating back to the 1890s and points of focus include education, occupations, transportation, geographic boundaries, and recreational and community activities. The interviews were conducted and recorded on audiocassettes in 1975 through the Center for Anacostia Studies and the Anacostia Community Museum. Most of the interviews have been digitized and are accessible in the archive on CDs.
Biographical/Historical note:
The Center for Anacostia Studies was the predecessor of the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum research department.
Related Archival Materials note:
The Anacostia Community Museum Archives also houses other oral histories of the area, including the ACM 25th Anniversary Oral History Project.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at acmarchives@si.edu.
The Miu Eng Eastern Wind Collection, which dates from 1973-1983 and measures 2.1 linear feet, speaks to Ms. Eng's role as an activist and artist in Washington D.C.'s early Asian American movement. The collection includes newsletters, photographs, and booklets documenting Ms. Eng's activities with Eastern Wind, a pan-Asian American youth organization formed in 1973 that sought to document and address Asian American issues in the D.C. area. The collection also includes posters designed by Ms. Eng for several D.C. Asian American community programs of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Scope and Contents:
Biographical files contain a 1977 award presented to Eng for her work on a large-scale mural entitled "Chinese in America: Past, Present, and Future" that was mounted at the corner of 7th and H Streets NW in Washington, DC.
Newsletters include four newsletters published by Eastern Wind, described as "the Asian American community newsletter of Washington, D.C." Highlights from the newsletters include updates on the status of Asian American Studies at University of Maryland, a history of D.C. Chinatown, and essay series on Asian Americans in the Women's Movement and the history of Asian American ethnic groups in Washington D.C. A separate booklet, "Washington, D.C.'s Chinese Community," was published in 1975 by Eastern Wind and contains archival and oral history research conducted as part of Eastern Wind's Chinatown History Project.
Photographs include three reproduced black-and-white photographs taken by Harry Chow depicting various stages of Eastern Wind's 1976 Chinatown mural project, and a 28:32 DVD slide show containing photographs taken by Chow, including daily scenes of D.C. Chinatown, the 1973 Chinese American Summer Festival, the design and production of the Chinatown mural, and covers of Eastern Wind's newsletter from 1973-1974.
Posters include posters designed by Miu Eng for D.C. Asian Pacific American Heritage Week, 1981-1983, as well as a 1979 poster Eng designed for WPFW-FM's radio show, "Gold Mountain."
Arrangement:
Miu Eng Eastern Wing Collection is arranged in 4 series.
Series 1: Biographical Files
Series 2: Newsletters
Series 3: Photographs
Series 4: Posters
Biographical / Historical:
Miu Eng (1955-present) is a Chinese American designer whose work helped document Asian American community activism in the Washington, D.C. area in the 1970s and 1980s. Born in 1955 in Hong Kong, Eng's family immigrated to the United States when Eng was 11 years old. They settled in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown on New York Avenue NW, where her grandfather had been working as a restaurant chef.
While in high school, Eng became involved in Eastern Wind, a pioneering group of Asian American college students who had come together in August of 1973 with the goal of addressing and raising awareness about Asian American issues in the D.C. area. The group, part of a national movement of growing pan-Asian American political awareness, published a newsletter (also called Eastern Wind) through the mid-1970s, for which Eng designed covers and provided illustrations. With funding from the DC Bicentennial Commission and sponsorship by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Eastern Wind designed and mounted a 32-foot wide mural celebrating the past, present, and future of Chinese America. Eng served as a key designer, sketching and orchestrating the painting of the mural, which would be installed on the exterior of the Jade Palace Restaurant on H Street and 7th Streets NW.
After graduating from George Washington University with a B.A. in graphic design and economics, Eng continued to provide design work for various local Asian-American community efforts, including designing posters for the WPFW Asian American radio show "Gold Mountain," D.C. and for the city's observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Week.
Provenance:
Donated by Miu Eng in 2017.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at ACMarchives@si.edu
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.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Alberta Cifolelli papers, 1944-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of this collection received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Alberta Cifolelli papers, 1944-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Processing of this collection received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
