Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
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United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
city of Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. Founded in 1965, it holds the world's largest permanent exhibit on African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
culture. In 1997, it moved into a 120,000 square foot (11,000 m²) facility on Warren Avenue. The Wright Museum has dual missions, serving as both a museum of artifacts and a place of cultural retention and growth.
The Museum owns more than 30,000 artifacts and archival materials. Some of the major collections it is home to include the Blanche Coggin Underground Railroad Collection, the Harriet Tubman Museum Collection, a Coleman A. Young Collection and a collection of documents about the labor movement in Detroit called the Sheffield Collection. Also in the museum is an interactive exhibit called And Still We Rise: Our Journey through African American History and Culture , seven exhibition areas devoted to African Americans and their lives, the Louise Lovett Wright Research Library, and the General Motors Theater, which is a 317 seat facility for film, live performances, lectures, and presentations. A terrazzo tile creation titled Genealogy is in the Ford Freedom Rotunda Floor and the museum is topped by a 100 feet (30.5 m) by 55 feet (16.8 m) glass dome. The museum store sells authentic African art and books, as well as other merchandise.
Dr. Charles Wright, a practicing physician, was inspired to create an institution to preserve black history after he visited a memorial to Danish World War II heroes in Denmark.
In 1965, Dr. Charles H. Wright
Charles H. Wright
Dr. Charles Howard Wright was a Detroit physician and founder of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.- Early life :...
opened the International Afro-American Museum on 1549 West Grand Boulevard in a house he owned. Some of the exhibits included the inventions of Michigander Elijah McCoy, and masks from Nigeria and Ghana that he had acquired while visiting there. The next year, he opened a traveling exhibit to tour the state. In 1978, the city of Detroit leased the museum a plot of land in Midtown
Midtown, Detroit
The Midtown area in Detroit is a mixed-use area located along the east and west side of Woodward Avenue between Downtown Detroit and the New Center. The community area of neighborhoods is bounded by the Chrysler Freeway on the east, the Lodge Freeway on the west, the Edsel Ford Freeway on the...
near the Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Institute of Art, and the Science Center. Groundbreaking for a new museum occurred in 1985, and the museum was renamed the Museum of African American History.
Other museums in Detroit's Cultural Center
Cultural Center Historic District
The Cultural Center Historic District is a historic district located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, which includes the Art Center : the Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Horace H. Rackham Education Memorial Building were listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
are:
- Detroit Historical MuseumDetroit Historical MuseumThe Detroit Historical Museum is located at 5401 Woodward Avenue in the city's Cultural Center Historic District in Midtown Detroit. It chronicles the history of the Detroit area from cobblestone streets, 19th century stores, the auto assembly line, toy trains, fur trading from the 18th century,...
- Detroit Institute of ArtsDetroit Institute of ArtsThe Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
- Detroit Science CenterDetroit Science CenterThe Detroit Science Center is a science museum in Detroit, Michigan.The Science Center has Michigan’s only Chrysler IMAX Dome Theatre; the Dassault Systèmes Planetarium; the DTE Energy Sparks Theater; the Chrysler Science Stage; an Science Hall for traveling exhibits; hands-on exhibit galleries...