Inside the Smithsonian’s African American museum: Stunning views, grand scale
A dream for 100 years, the National Museum of African American History and Culture promises to become an instant favorite when it opens Sept. 24, its soaring spaces and magical views of the National Mall a fitting setting for its tale of African-American history and achievement.
Museum officials offered earlier this month a sneak peek at the 400,000-square-foot museum, the 19th of the Smithsonian Institution, that’s next to the Washington Monument. President Barack Obama is expected to cut the ribbon on the dramatic space, which features layers of galleries focused on slavery, segregation and the civil rights movement as well as music, entertainment, sports and politics. South Carolina displays are among those that will be featured.
Dozens of hard-hatted workers crammed the fourth-floor cultural galleries, where circular exhibition cases are being filled with objects related to food, education and sports.
“End of Phase One today; that’s like Mile 22 on our marathon,” said Collections Manager Gina Whiteman, adding that there are 12 phases in the installation plan. “This is a long time coming. It’s exciting to see it go from paper to 3-D.”
There is much to be done in the coming months. Wires still hang from the ceiling, and crates of artifacts are parked in every corner of the galleries. Display cases are being built on lower levels, while in the music galleries, cases labeled Bo Diddley, Little Richard and the Jackson 5 await their treasures.
Museum staffers must install 3,000 artifacts – as well as accompanying videos, photos and wall text – that will be on view in 11 inaugural exhibitions. Staff must be moved in, the 400-seat cafeteria brought on line and metal detectors must be installed at the two entrances.
But progress is on track, says Charles Yetter, a senior project manager with construction consultant McKissack & McKissack who has been working on the building for six years. The Oprah Winfrey Theater, a stunning 350-seat space with echoes of the building’s bronze exterior, appears to be complete, but other spaces are definitely works in progress. Officials are deciding on the quotes to be included in the Contemplative Court, for example, a room off the history galleries that includes a dramatic skylight and a waterfall.
Yetter can imagine the room’s power. “It will be aglow,” he said, noting that the walls are glass and copper. “You’ve seen all the bad and some of the good, and you can come here and think about what you saw.”
The architects, curators and designers worked collaboratively to create the museum’s inspiring interior. “What we wanted was spaces with a lot of dramatic viewpoints,” said exhibition designer Ralph Appelbaum.
The familiar bronze-clad structure on Constitution Avenue represents only about a third of the museum’s total space, Yetter said. After entering the central court, visitors will be encouraged to take an elevator 40 feet underground, where the journey begins with the global slave trade. A series of ramps will take visitors through time and space, through slavery, segregation and the civil rights era.
Most of the displays are still off-site, but several large items are in place, although many are wrapped in plastic: the weathered wood cabin used during the period of slavery at Point of Pines Plantation on Edisto Island, South Carolina; a log cabin of free slaves from Poolesville, Maryland; a menacing prison guard tower; a segregation-era railway car.
An airplane used by Tuskegee Airmen hangs above the last ramp, which ascends to a platform with a quote from poet Langston Hughes: “I, too, am America.”
The building’s upper levels offer views of the Mall and the Washington Monument, an intentional nod to its historic home. “The designers want to tie the museum to the city,” Yetter said.
After years of false starts, a bill from Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., to create the museum passed Congress in 2003 and became law with the pen of President George W. Bush. Three years later, the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents approved the five-acre site on the Mall between the Washington Monument and the National Museum of American History. Lead designer David Adjaye and Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup were selected in 2009, and construction began in 2012.
The $540 million project was funded through a partnership with Congress, which provided half the money, or $270 million. The other half is being raised through private contributions; officials are within a few million dollars of that goal.
“It’s going to be dramatic,” says Yetter, stopping at the top of a ramp.
It already is.
Installed Collection Highlights at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
The museum is building a collection designed to illustrate the major periods of African American history, beginning with the origins in Africa and continuing through slavery, reconstruction, the civil rights era, the Harlem Renaissance and into the 21st century. The museum will open Sept. 24.
Slave Cabin, c. early 1800s: A weatherboard-clad cabin used during slavery at Point of Pines Plantation on Edisto Island, S.C. Gift of the Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society
Segregation-era Southern Railway car, No. 1200, c. 1920: A 44-seat segregated passenger car that serviced routes in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. Gift of Pete Claussen and Gulf and Ohio Railways
Tuskegee Airplane, Boeing-Stearman PT-13D Kaydet, c. 1944: A vintage, open-cockpit biplane that was used at Alabama’s renowned Tuskegee Institute to train African American pilots for Army Air Corps service during World War II.
Angola Prison Guard Tower, c. 1930–1940s: A 20-foot-tall tower used by prison guards to watch prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, one of the largest maximum-security prisons in the nation. Gift of Louisiana State Penitentiary
Jones-Hall-Sims House, c. 1874: Log house from Poolesville, Md., that was built and inhabited by free slaves after the Civil War. Gift of Bradley and Shannon Rhoderick
Chuck Berry’s Cadillac, c. 1973: The car is part of Berry’s personal fleet of Cadillacs and was driven during the filming of Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll, a 1987 documentary that chronicles two 1986 concerts. Gift of Chuck Berry
The Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership, c. 1990: The 1,200-pound aluminum stage prop used at funk-musician George Clinton’s concerts. Gift of Love to the planet
Soul Train Neon Sign, c. 1993: Neon sign used on the Soul Train TV show, 1993–2006. Gift of Soul Train Holdings LLC
Sam Cooke Banner, c. 1964: Large banner advertising Sam Cooke used in Atlantic City, N.J. Gift of Vicki Gold Levi
Minton’s Playhouse Sign, c. 1984: Historic neon sign from Minton’s Playhouse, a jazz club located in Harlem, N.Y. Gift of Harlem Community Development Corp.
Other notable items at the museum
Harriet Tubman collection, including her hymnal (c. 1876); lace shawl (c. 1897), given to her by Queen Victoria; and family photographs from her funeral
Emmett Till’s casket (c. 1955)—the glass-topped coffin that held the body of 14-year-old Emmett Till whose murder in Mississippi helped galvanize the civil rights movement
Works of art by Charles Alston, John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Lorna Simpson, Romare Bearden, Archibald John Motley Jr., Henry O. Tanner and Frederick C. Flemister
This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 11:36 AM with the headline "Inside the Smithsonian’s African American museum: Stunning views, grand scale."