National Museum of American History (U.S.) Search this
Smithsonian Institution. Traveling Exhibition Service Search this
Collection Creator:
Smithsonian Institution. Traveling Exhibition Service Search this
National Museum of American History (U.S.) Search this
Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum Search this
Extent:
3 Video recordings (3 VHS 1/2" video recordings)
0.15 Linear feet
Type:
Archival materials
Video recordings
Place:
Southern States
Date:
1993
Scope and Contents note:
Audiovisual materials related to the exhibit "Before Freedom Came: African American Life in the Antebellum South," which explores the life styles of enslaved and free black people, their regional work patterns, struggles, and triumphs. This exhibition was developed for circulation by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service with the assistance of the Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of American History. It was adapted from an exhibition organized by the Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. This collection contains audiovisual materials related to the Before Freedom Came exhibit, including video recordings of exhibit tours, docent training, and news coverage of the exhibit.
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.
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.
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.
General:
Title transcribed from physical asset (Evolution of a Community) and contents of video recording (tour of the exhibit).
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.
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.
Evolution of a Community: Oral History of Anacostia, Exhibition Records AV03-040, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
The Henson Family papers, which date from 1818 to 1943 and measure 0.18 linear feet, document the activities of Tobias Henson and his descendants. The papers are comprised of booklets, correspondence, legal documents, and receipts.
Scope and Contents:
This collection documents the activities of Tobias Henson and his descendants between 1818 and 1943. It contains materials related to the Hensons' financial and legal activities. Included in the collection are booklets, correspondence, deeds and titles, legal documents, and receipts.
Arrangement
The papers are organized into four series. The content of each series is arranged alphabetically. The series are arranged as follows:
Series I: Financial Records
Series II: Legal Records
Series III: Printed Materials
Series IV: Miscellaneous
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged by series: 1) Financial Records, 2) Legal Records, 3) Printed Materials, 4) Miscellaneous.
Biographical/Historical note:
The history of the Hensons begins with the family's patriarch, Tobias Henson. Mr. Henson was a slave in the Washington, DC area during the 18th and 19th centuries and, given his family's history, it is apparent that he was a man with an ambitious mission: to attain the American dream. He had two tasks to accomplish if he were to see his dream realized. First he had to gain freedom for himself and his family. Second he had to purchase property upon which he could build a home, and from which he could earn a living.
He took the first step in 1813 when he purchased himself from his slave master, thus gaining his freedom. Next he purchased his wife, Elizabeth. In April of 1832 Mr. Henson purchased his daughter Matlinda Smith and her three children. In May of the following year he purchased his second daughter Mary Anderson.
With these purchases, Tobias Henson became a slaveholder, with his wife and children his slaves. Ever resourceful, Mr. Henson used this to his advantage; he rented out his daughters for income and used them as collateral for loans. With the income he generated, he purchased the freedom of his other family members. In fact, he used his daughters, Matlinda and Mary, as collateral for a loan he acquired to purchase Mary's freedom.
In addition to purchasing his freedom in 1813, Tobias Henson entered into an agreement to buy land in the Anacostia section of Washington, DC. The land, named the Ridge, consisted of twenty-four acres located in the Congress Heights section of Anacostia. He made payments on the Ridge until 1826, at which time he made the final payment and became the legal owner. Initially Mr. Henson farmed the land, but as his family grew he subdivided the acreage so that the members of his family could experience their own American dream.
Over the subsequent decades members of the Henson family continued to purchase land in the area surrounding the Ridge; at one point they were one of the largest landowners in the Anacostia section of Washington, DC. The family maintained residence on various parts of the land from the time of its purchase until the middle of the 20th century. Title records filed with the District of Columbia show that, in 1931, the portion of the Ridge that Tobias Henson gave to his grandson, Richard Smith, was still in possession of his descendants. But that was the exception. Most of the Henson family's real estate was either sold or "taken" by the government under the auspices of eminent domain. Just a decade after this title was filed, the federal government made plans to take what remained of the Ridge.
The family did all they could to save the legacy of Tobias Henson. They contacted local and federal government officials in an attempt to stave off what would amount to the destruction of an important piece of black history dating from antebellum Washington, DC. When they had exhausted all of the possibilities, they made a last ditch appeal to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In a 1943 letter they pleaded,
At the present there are some thirteen or fourteen families living on this land, which is still designated as the Ridge, and with only one or two exceptions, these families are the direct descendants of Tobian [sic] Henson…we do not feel that taking our homes will aid in the War Effort or in the Ideals of Democracy.
Unfortunately, their plea went unanswered; the land was taken by the government and the houses thereon where razed.
Related Materials:
Anacostia Historical Society Records.
Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Provine, The economic position of the free Blacks in the District of Columbia
Collection Creator:
Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum Search this
Container:
Box 12, Folder 4
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Climbing Jacob's Ladder: the rise of Black churches in Eastern American cities, 1740 - 1877 exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum Search this
Extent:
2 Sound recordings (open reel, 1/4 inch)
Type:
Archival materials
Sound recordings
Narration
Place:
Boston (Mass.)
United States
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Date:
circa 1987
Scope and Contents:
Narrator Jim Vance presents a very short history of the Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston and the life of Reverend Leonard Grimes. The church's and reverend's work with the Underground Railroad and antislavery movement, and after the passing of Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 are highlighted. The arrests of Shadrach and Anthony Burns are also addressed. Members of the Twelfth Baptist Church wanted the right to bear arms as part of the Union Forces during the Civil War; William L. Garrison and Frederick Douglass argued for this right.
Narration only. Might be part of Climbing Jacob's Ladder Audiovisual Records. Production elements: AV003356 and AV003428 [narration]. AV003356: begins at 000115 [first minute of recording related to The Times of Richard Allen]. Undated.
Biographical / Historical:
Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston might be related to the Climbing Jacob's Ladder: The Rise of Black Churches in Eastern American Cities, 1740 - 1877 exhibition which explored the growth and central role of African American churches during the 18th- and 19th-centuries in the eastern United States: Boston, Savannah, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond. The exhibition was organized by the Anacostia Museum and held there from October 1987 to October 1988.;Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston was formed by a small group of dissentients who split from the First African Baptist Church in 1848. It served as an anti-slavery meetinghouse, and provided refuge and spiritual guidance to free blacks and fugitive slaves. Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston was also known as the Fugitives Church or the Church of the Fugitive Slave.;Reverend Leonard Grimes was pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston from 1848 to 1874. Born to free parents in Leesburg, Virginia, Grimes first became involved in the antislavery movement through his work with the Underground Railroad in Washington, D.C.
Local Numbers:
ACMA AV003428
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.
The Literary Corner: Introduction to Afro-American Essays with Sarah Fabio and Thomas Schick (side a) / Introduction to African English Drama with Brooks Robinson (side b)
Title:
Cassette tape with two episodes of the Literary Corner radio program
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Contributed in memory of Professor Sarah Webster Fabio (1928-1979), poet, educator, Black Arts Movement icon, and one of the Literary Corner's analysts.
United States of America -- North Carolina -- Durham County -- Durham
United States of America -- Massachusetts -- Suffolk County -- Boston
United States of America -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia County -- Philadelphia
United States of America -- New York -- New York
Date:
bulk 1939-2017
Scope and Contents:
The Philip G. Freelon Architectural Archival Collection documents the life and career of architect, educator, cultural heritage preservation advocate and artist Philip G. Freelon. The collection highlights his distinguished career from its inception to his role as the "architect of record" for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Freelon was one of the leading African American architects of his generation and he created a focus designing and constructing buildings that paid reverence to African Americans and other underrepresented communities. This collection is comprised of business records, photographic materials, ephemera, correspondence, architectural drawings, and clippings.
Arrangement:
The materials in this collection have been separated into seven series. The materials have been ordered and organized based on the content and chronology. Within each series and sub-series, the folders are organized as close to the collection's original order as when it was acquired.
Biographical / Historical:
Philip Goodwin Freelon was born March 26, 1953, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Allan Freelon, Jr. and Elizabeth Neal Freelon. Freelon was greatly influenced by his grandfather, Allan Freelon Sr., a notable Harlem Renaissance visual artist, educator, and civil rights activist. His grandfather's values and artistry inspired him to create a career that focused on creating historical and cultural spaces in African American communities. Freelon attended high school at the former predominantly white elite all-boys school, Central High School located in upper North Philadelphia from 1967 to 1971. His attendance at this school during of the Civil Rights Movement afforded him the unique experience that inspired him to attend a historically Black college (HBCU). Freelon selected Hampton Institute (Hampton University) to develop his veneration of the composition and design of the buildings that held cultural and artistic treasures. Located in the Tidewater area of Virginia, Hampton was renowned among HBCUs for its architecture program. His professor and mentor at Hampton, John Spencer, pushed Freelon academically as he moved easily through the school's curriculum. After two years at Hampton, Spencer helped Freelon transition to a more challenging program at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Freelon graduated in 1975 with a bachelor's in environmental design in architecture.
Later in the fall of 1975, Freelon enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to pursue a master's in architecture. During the summers, Freelon worked with one of former his NC State professors at the architectural firm of John D. Latimer and Associates. After graduating from MIT in 1977, Freelon returned to North Carolina to take his Architecture Registration Examination (ARE), becoming the firm's youngest person to receive licensure. He also began teaching classes at his alma mater, NC State. It was there that Freelon met his future wife, Nnenna Pierce. Pierce, a Massachusetts native was attending Simmons College in Boston at the time. The connection was immediate, and the pair was married in 1979 and welcomed their first son, Deen in 1980. After a brief employment for a large Texas firm 3/D International, Freelon returned to Durham to join O'Brien Atkins Associates. He was the firm's youngest partner, eventually serving as principal and vice president of architecture. Freelon worked on a wide variety of projects throughout the state including learning centers, university buildings, churches, and parking garages. Along with Freelon's budding career, his family was expanding as well. Phil and Nnenna welcomed their daughter Maya in 1982 and their son, Pierce in 1983. During this time, Freelon was being highly recognized for his work. The American of Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded him the Honor Award for his design of Terminal 2 of the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, which has since been rebuilt.
By the end of the decade, Freelon and his wife Nnenna needed a change of pace. Nnenna pursued a professional career in music while Phil took a break from his career to expand his skillset and reinforce his intellectual approach to design. In 1989, Freelon was granted the Loeb Fellowship for one year of independent study at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He also pursued a longtime hobby of furniture design, calling the practice "small architecture". He received industry awards like first prize in the PPG Industries, Inc. Furniture Design Competition as well as AIA Honor Award for conference table designs. With a year away from the field to clarify his vision, Freelon opened his own firm, simply titled, the Freelon Group in 1990. Beginning as a one-man operation, the Freelon Group grew to become one of the largest African American owned architectural firms in the country with over 50 employees, forty percent of which were women, and thirty percent were people of color. With freedom within his own firm, Freelon focused on designing learning centers, libraries and museums and vowed to never build anything that did not bring cultural and intellectual value to a community.
Over the next twenty years, Freelon would assert himself as a force in designing notable cultural institutions and community-driven projects in and around the country including the Sonja Haynes Stone Center at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC), Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture (Baltimore, MD), Museum of African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA), Harvey B. Gantt for African American Arts and Culture (Charlotte, NC), the Anacostia and Tenley-Friendship branches of the District of Columbia Public Library , National Center for Civil Rights and Human Rights (Atlanta, GA), Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (Jackson, MS) and Emancipation Park (Houston, TX).
Alongside his architectural career, Freelon served as a lecturer and adjunct professor at several colleges and universities including North Carolina State University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Maryland College Park, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and the Florence, Italy program at Kent State University. Freelon was awarded a full-time appointment as professor of Professional Practice at MIT in 2008. The Professional Practice (4.222) course was a requirement for the master's in architecture and he used examples from his extensive career and personal experience to illustrate legal, ethical, and management concepts. Nnenna's music career was also thriving. She would go on to record twelve albums and be nominated for six Grammys. This fusion of education, the arts, and music inspired another generation of Freelons: their son, Pierce Freelon is a hip-hop artist, educator, and political activist; daughter Maya Freelon is a visual artist; and son Deen Freelon is a professor.
In 2001, George W. Bush established a commission to create a new museum on the National Mall. Freelon wanted to enter his firm to participate in the international design competition. Freelon would partner with famed African American New York City architect, J. Max Bond, Jr. and by 2006 the two officially formed the Freelon Bond Architects.The Freelon Bond group submitted their proposal and soon after were elected to create programming and pre-design work for the museum. When the official design competition for the museum was announced in 2008, UK-based architect David Adjaye joined the team as the lead designer, and along with the partnering firm SmithGroup, the new architectural team became Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup. The three black architects combined a variety of distinctive elements from Africa and the Americas to create the building's unique, historically significant design. The Freelon Group served as the "architect of record" and were responsible for ensuring that key design ideas were upheld. Freelon and key firm members such as Zena Howard were active as on-site project managers during the museum's construction process to certify that the building would be developed according to plan.
Freelon, Adjaye, and Bond were tasked with taking the collective history of the African American experience-- generations of pain, triumph, and perseverance-- and forming it into a structure. The team looked to African sources, such as Yoruban architecture, for inspiration. They sought to connect the building's design to the geographic and cultural roots of African Americans. Their design choices also reference the contributions of enslaved and free black metalworkers made to the landscape of the American South. Their goal was to make the museum an extension of its contents, and an expression of the stories told inside.
By the groundbreaking for NMAAHC in 2012, Freelon had been appointed to the U.S. Commission of the Fine Arts by President Barack Obama. In an effort to broaden his resources and expand his firm, The Freelon Group merged with Perkins & Will, a firm originating in Chicago that grew to have offices across the United States. Freelon was appointed the managing director and later lead design director at the firm's North Carolina offices in Charlotte and Durham in 2014. By the next year, Freelon understood that his work in architecture and education was a necessary voice to preserve, which he did through donation of the bulk of his personal papers to his alma mater, NC State University. The year 2016 proved to be a year of triumph for Freelon as NMAAHC opened its doors on September 24th to much jubilation and celebration. That same year, Freelon's legacy was further cemented as the Phil Freelon Fellowship Fund was established at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a fellowship designed to broaden opportunities for African Americans and other underrepresented communities in architecture and design.
Unfortunately, this triumphant year was met with difficulty as Freelon was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive disease that affects the nervous system. He would continue to work and lecture for the next two years until it became too challenging. One of those projects was the renovation and opening of The NorthStar Church of the Arts in early 2019. A passion project with his wife and son, Pierce, a former church was renovated and repurposed as an arts and cultural space for all. This space was created in an effort to support the Durham cultural community as it began to feel the effects of gentrification. When Freelon lost his battle with ALS on July 9, 2019, in his home in Durham, North Carolina, the family requested that in lieu of flowers that donations be sent to the NorthStar Church to continue the center's mission and Phil's dream to give back to the Durham community.
Historical Timeline
1953 -- Philip Goodwin Freelon was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Allan Freelon Jr. and Elizabeth Neal Freelon.
1971 -- Freelon graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and entered School of Architecture, Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia as a design student.
1973 -- Freelon transferred to College of Design at the North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
1975 -- Graduated with a Bachelor's in Environmental Design in Architecture from NC State University. He received the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Book Award for Outstanding Work in Architectural Design. In the fall, he began his master's program in architecture at MIT.
1976 -- Began working as aide for architectural firm, John D. Latimer and Associates.
1977 -- Graduated with a Master's in Architecture and Design from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.)
1978 -- Freelon became youngest architect to pass the North Carolina Architecture Registration Exam. Freelon started teaching at North Carolina State University.
1979 -- Married Chinyere "Nnenna" Pierce. Freelon began working for, 3/D International in Houston, Texas.
1980 -- Son Deen Freelon was born.
1981 -- Freelon returned to Durham, NC to join O'Brien Atkins Associates as the firm's youngest partner.
1982 -- Daughter Maya Freelon was born.
1983 -- Son Pierce Freelon was born.
1989-1990 -- Received Loeb Fellowship for independent study at Harvard University. Freelon received AIA Honor Award for American Airlines Terminal 2 at Raleigh-Durham Airport, NC (RDU).
1990 -- Freelon left O'Brien Atkins Associates to open his own firm The Freelon Group.
1991 -- Won first prize in the PPG Furniture Design Competition.
1992 -- Won the AIA Honor Award for Conference Table Designs.
2001 -- Won the AIA Firm Award for The Freelon Group and the AIA Design Award for Parking Structure, RDU Airport. Began attending meetings of President George W. Bush's commission on new National Mall museum dedicated to African American history and culture.
2003 -- Freelon merged his firm with New York architect Max Bond to create Freelon Bond Architects.
2004 -- Sonja Haynes Stone Center at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) was completed.
2005 -- Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture (Baltimore, MD) and Museum of African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA) were both completed.
2008 -- UK-based architect David Adjaye and Washington, DC based architecture firm, Smithgroup joined the team, creating the Freelon Adjaye Bond Group/SmithGroup Freelon began teaching at MIT's school of Architecture and Design.
2009 -- Freelon Adjaye Bond/Smithgroup won the official design for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Harvey B. Gantt for African American Arts and Culture (Charlotte, NC) was completed.
2010 -- Anacostia branch of the District of Columbia Public Library (Washington, DC) was completed.
2011 -- Tenley-Friendship branch of the District of Columbia Public Library (Washington, DC) was completed.
2012 -- Construction began on NMAAHC.
2014 -- The Freelon Group merged with Perkins & Will, a much larger architectural firm. Freelon became managing director and lead design director of the North Carolina branches in Durham and Charlotte. National Center for Civil Rights and Human Rights (Atlanta, GA) was completed.
2016 -- Freelon was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
2017 -- Mississippi Civil Rights Museum (Jackson, MS) and Emancipation Park (Houston, TX) were completed.
2019 -- Freelon died in his home in Durham, North Carolina at age 66 on July 9.
Related Materials:
Phil Freelon Papers, 1975-2019 at North Carolina State University Libraries.
Provenance:
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Philip G. Freelon.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research. Access to collection materials requires an appointment.
Rights:
The NMAAHC Archives can provide reproductions of some materials for research and educational use. Copyright and right to publicity restrictions apply and limit reproduction for other purposes.
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of archival audiovisual recordings and born-digital records with no duplicate access copies requires advance notice.
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:
Jeff Donaldson papers, 1918-2005, bulk 1960s-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the digitization of the Jeff Donaldson papers was provided by the Walton Family Foundation.
