DuSable Museum
Encyclopedia
The DuSable Museum of African American History is the first and oldest museum dedicated to the study and conservation of African American
history, culture, and art. It was founded in 1961 by Dr. Margaret Taylor-Burroughs
(sometimes Margaret Burroughs or Margaret Goss Burroughs), her husband Charles Burroughs, Gerard Lew, and others. Dr. Taylor-Burroughs and other founders established the museum to celebrate black culture, then overlooked by most museums and academic establishments. It is located at 740 E. 56th Place at the corner of Cottage Grove Avenue on the South Side
of Chicago
in the Washington Park community area
.
. In 1968, the museum was renamed for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Haiti
an fur trader and the first non-Native-American
permanent settler in Chicago
. During the 1960s, the museum and the South Side Community Art Center
, which was located across the street, founded by Taylor-Burroughs and dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt
, formed an African American cultural corridor. This original museum site had previously been a boarding house
for African American railroad workers.
The DuSable Museum quickly filled a void caused by limited cultural resources then available to African Americans in Chicago. It became an educational resource for African American history and culture and a focal point in Chicago for black social activism. The museum has hosted political fundraisers, community festivals, and various events serving the black community. The museum's model has been emulated in numerous other cities around the country, including Boston
, Los Angeles
, and Philadelphia.
In 1973, the Chicago Park District
donated the usage of a park administration building in Washington Park
as the site for the museum. The current location once served as a lockup facility for the Chicago Police Department
. In 1993, the museum expanded with the addition of a new wing named in honor of the late Mayor Harold Washington
, the first African-American mayor of Chicago
. In 2004, the original building became a contributing building to the Washington Park United States Registered Historic District which is a National Register of Historic Places
listing.
The DuSable Museum is the oldest and largest caretaker of African American culture in the United States. Over its long history, it has expanded as necessary to reflect the increased interest in black culture. This willingness to adapt has allowed it to survive while other museums faltered due to a weakening economy and decreased public support. The museum was the eighth one located on Park District land. Although it focuses on exhibiting African American culture, it is one of several Chicago museums that celebrates Chicago's ethnic and cultural heritage.
Antoinette Wright, director of the DuSable Museum, has said that African American art has grown out of a need for the culture to preserve its history orally and in art due to historical obstacles to other forms of documentation. She also believes that the museum serves as a motivational tool for members of a culture that has experienced extensive negativity. In the 1980s, African American museums such as the DuSable endured the controversy of whether negative aspects of the cultural history should be memorialized. In the 1990s, the African American genre of museum began to flourish despite financial difficulties.
and the violin
of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
.
According to a Frommer's
review published in The New York Times
, the museum has a collection of 13,000 artifacts, books, photographs, art objects, and memorabilia. The DuSable collection has come largely from private gifts. It has United States slavery-era relics, nineteenth- and twentieth-century artifacts, and archival materials, including the diaries of sea explorer Captain Harry Dean. The DuSable collection includes works from scholar W. E. B. Du Bois, sociologist St. Clair Drake
, and poet Langston Hughes
. The African American art collection contains selections from the South Side Community Art Center
students Charles White, Archibald Motley, Jr., Charles Sebree, and Marion Perkins, as well as numerous New Deal
Works Progress Administration
period and 1960s Black Arts Movement works. The museum also owns prints and drawings by Henry O. Tanner, Richmond Barthé
, and Romare Bearden
, and has an extensive collection of books and records pertaining to African and African American history and culture.
mosaics, which honor the institution's founders. The building was designed c.1915 by D.H. Burnham and Company to serve as the South Park Administration Building in Washington Park on the city's south side. The new wing is 25000 square feet (2,322.6 m²). The museum has a 466-seat auditorium
, which is part of the new wing, that hosts community-related events, such as a jazz and blues music series, poetry readings, film screenings, and other cultural events. The museum also has a gift shop and a research library. As of 2001, the museum operated with a US$2.7 million budget, compared to a $55.7M budget for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
. The museum's funding is partially dependent upon a Chicago Park District tax levy.
After the 1993 expansion of the new wing, the museum contained 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²) of exhibition space. The $4 million expansion was funded by a $2 million matching funds grant from city and state officials.
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...
history, culture, and art. It was founded in 1961 by Dr. Margaret Taylor-Burroughs
Margaret Taylor-Burroughs
Margaret Taylor-Burroughs was a prominent African American artist and writer and a co-founder of the DuSable Museum of African American History. She also helped to establish the South Side Community Art Center, whose opening on May 1, 1941 was dedicated by the First Lady of the United States...
(sometimes Margaret Burroughs or Margaret Goss Burroughs), her husband Charles Burroughs, Gerard Lew, and others. Dr. Taylor-Burroughs and other founders established the museum to celebrate black culture, then overlooked by most museums and academic establishments. It is located at 740 E. 56th Place at the corner of Cottage Grove Avenue on the South Side
South Side (Chicago)
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in the Washington Park community area
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
.
History
The DuSable Museum was originally chartered on February 16, 1961. Its origins as the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art began following the work of Margaret and Charles Burroughs to correct the perceived omission of black history and culture in the education establishment. The museum was originally located on the ground floor of the Burroughs' home at 3806 S. Michigan AvenueMichigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
. In 1968, the museum was renamed for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an fur trader and the first non-Native-American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
permanent settler in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. During the 1960s, the museum and the South Side Community Art Center
South Side Community Art Center
The South Side Community Art Center is a community art center in Chicago that opened in 1940 with support from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in Illinois. It was the first black art museum in the United States and has been an important center for the development Chicago's...
, which was located across the street, founded by Taylor-Burroughs and dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
, formed an African American cultural corridor. This original museum site had previously been a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
for African American railroad workers.
The DuSable Museum quickly filled a void caused by limited cultural resources then available to African Americans in Chicago. It became an educational resource for African American history and culture and a focal point in Chicago for black social activism. The museum has hosted political fundraisers, community festivals, and various events serving the black community. The museum's model has been emulated in numerous other cities around the country, including Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, and Philadelphia.
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
donated the usage of a park administration building in Washington Park
Washington Park, Chicago
Washington Park is a well-defined community area on the South Side of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, USA, Which gets its name from the and nieghborhood. It includes the 372 acre park named Washington Park, stretching east-west from Cottage Grove Avenue to the Dan Ryan Expressway, and...
as the site for the museum. The current location once served as a lockup facility for the Chicago Police Department
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
. In 1993, the museum expanded with the addition of a new wing named in honor of the late Mayor Harold Washington
Harold Washington
Harold Lee Washington was an American lawyer and politician who became the first African-American Mayor of Chicago, serving from 1983 until his death in 1987.- Early years and military service :...
, the first African-American mayor of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. In 2004, the original building became a contributing building to the Washington Park United States Registered Historic District which is a National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
listing.
The DuSable Museum is the oldest and largest caretaker of African American culture in the United States. Over its long history, it has expanded as necessary to reflect the increased interest in black culture. This willingness to adapt has allowed it to survive while other museums faltered due to a weakening economy and decreased public support. The museum was the eighth one located on Park District land. Although it focuses on exhibiting African American culture, it is one of several Chicago museums that celebrates Chicago's ethnic and cultural heritage.
Antoinette Wright, director of the DuSable Museum, has said that African American art has grown out of a need for the culture to preserve its history orally and in art due to historical obstacles to other forms of documentation. She also believes that the museum serves as a motivational tool for members of a culture that has experienced extensive negativity. In the 1980s, African American museums such as the DuSable endured the controversy of whether negative aspects of the cultural history should be memorialized. In the 1990s, the African American genre of museum began to flourish despite financial difficulties.
Collection
The new wing contains a permanent exhibit on Washington with memorabilia, personal effects and surveys highlights of his political career. The museum also serves as the city's primary memorial to du Sable. Highlights of its collection include the desk of activist Ida B. WellsIda B. Wells
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was an African American journalist, newspaper editor and, with her husband, newspaper owner Ferdinand L. Barnett, an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented lynching in the United States, showing how it was often a way to control or punish blacks who...
and the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal African American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 "Ode to Ethiopia", one poem in the collection Lyrics of Lowly Life....
.
According to a Frommer's
Frommer's
Frommer's is a travel guidebook series and one of the bestselling travel guides in America. The series began in 1957 with the publication of Arthur Frommer's book, Europe on $5 a Day. Frommer's has expanded to include over 350 guidebooks across 14 series, as well as other media including the award...
review published in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the museum has a collection of 13,000 artifacts, books, photographs, art objects, and memorabilia. The DuSable collection has come largely from private gifts. It has United States slavery-era relics, nineteenth- and twentieth-century artifacts, and archival materials, including the diaries of sea explorer Captain Harry Dean. The DuSable collection includes works from scholar W. E. B. Du Bois, sociologist St. Clair Drake
St. Clair Drake
St. Clair Drake was an African-American sociologist and anthropologist.Drake was born in Suffolk, Virginia. Upon graduation from Hampton Institute in 1931, he became involved with The Society of Friends in the south...
, and poet Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
. The African American art collection contains selections from the South Side Community Art Center
South Side Community Art Center
The South Side Community Art Center is a community art center in Chicago that opened in 1940 with support from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in Illinois. It was the first black art museum in the United States and has been an important center for the development Chicago's...
students Charles White, Archibald Motley, Jr., Charles Sebree, and Marion Perkins, as well as numerous New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
period and 1960s Black Arts Movement works. The museum also owns prints and drawings by Henry O. Tanner, Richmond Barthé
Richmond Barthé
James Richmond Barthé was an African American sculptor known for his many public works, including the Toussaint L’Ouverture Monument in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and a sculpture of Rose McClendon for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House.Barthe once said that “all my life I have be interested in...
, and Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
, and has an extensive collection of books and records pertaining to African and African American history and culture.
Facilities
The original north entrance contains the main lobby of the museum and features the Thomas MillerThomas Miller (visual artist)
Thomas Miller is a prolific graphic designer and visual artist, whose best known publicly accessible work is the collection of mosaics of the founders of DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, Illinois. The mosaics are a prominent feature of the lobby of the museum, the original...
mosaics, which honor the institution's founders. The building was designed c.1915 by D.H. Burnham and Company to serve as the South Park Administration Building in Washington Park on the city's south side. The new wing is 25000 square feet (2,322.6 m²). The museum has a 466-seat auditorium
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
, which is part of the new wing, that hosts community-related events, such as a jazz and blues music series, poetry readings, film screenings, and other cultural events. The museum also has a gift shop and a research library. As of 2001, the museum operated with a US$2.7 million budget, compared to a $55.7M budget for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
. The museum's funding is partially dependent upon a Chicago Park District tax levy.
After the 1993 expansion of the new wing, the museum contained 50000 square feet (4,645.2 m²) of exhibition space. The $4 million expansion was funded by a $2 million matching funds grant from city and state officials.
See also
- Barzillai LewBarzillai LewBarzillai Lew was an African American soldier who served with distinction during the American Revolution.-Family history:...
Lew Family - List of museums focused on African Americans
- List of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago