Lorenzo Dow Turner (detail), 1917. Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers,
Anacostia Community Museum Archives.
Gift of Lois Turner Williams
Have an opening in your exhibitions schedule or a gallery space in your library? Consider hosting this exhibition from the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum.
This exhibition documents the historical journey made by people from Africa to the Americas, along with their language and music. In the 1930s, Lorenzo Dow Turner discovered that the Gullah people of Georgia and South Carolina retained parts of the culture and language of their West African enslaved ancestors. Turner's research produced a living treasury of previously unknown traditions, songs, and folkways that also uncovered and illuminated the connections with West African and Afro-Brazilian communities.
Exhibition includes rare photographs, recordings and artifacts collected by Turner from those Gullah communities in the United States, Brazil, and West Africa as well as contemporary videography about his work.
Booking Period: 12 weeks
Size: Approximately 300 running feet
Contents: Objects, framed images and photographic panels, panel text, labels, banners
Contact: Sharon Reinckens, Deputy Director, Anacostia Community Museum at reinckenss@si.edu or 202.633.4838.
This traveling exhibition was possible by the James E. and Emily E. Clyburn Endowment for Archives & History at South Carolina State University.