Down Memory Lane
Object Details
- Creator
- Anacostia Neighborhood Museum
- Scope and Contents
- Older residents of Anacostia share their experiences and memories growing up and living in the once tight knit community, Anacostia, to provide evidence of Anacostia's history with goal of understanding the history of the community for present and future generations and with the theory that if man does not know where he came from, he/she cannot know here he/she is, and has no direction for the future. Martha Ellis reminiscences about her work at the public schools, particularly Birney School. Ruth Duckett, Ellis' daughter, talks about her work with the youth group at the Southeast House; when it was safe to sit outside and walk down the street; the portrayal of Anacostia in the newspapers and media; successful people who grew up in Anacostia and moved to other parts of the city and country; the baseball club Anacostia ACs; and ministers and movement of churches in the area. Churches mentioned by Duckett and other residents include Macedonia Baptist Church, St. Teresa's Catholic Church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, and Campbell A.M.E. Church. Residents speak about Anacostia's rich heritage of people doing things - the craftsmen, construction workers, business people, and entrepreneurs - including sign painter, automobile painter, and artist Walter McKenzie; the fish man Mr. Chapman; the Greenwood family and their family business, Greenwood Transfer Moving and Storage Company; and the Taylor family, specifically Blakely Taylor, who were brick layers. They reminiscence about how everyone knew everyone, how everyone helped each other and the community thrive, when mothers stayed home and took care of children, when children participated in programs at the recreation center, when police had closer tie to community; and when it is so quiet, residents could hear cars go across the 11th street bridge. Residents also talk about the present: movement of people from different communities into Anacostia, younger Anacostians forced away because of zoning and no housing besides apartments, dirty streets, and violence. Overall, residents do not feel as if everything is bad in Anacostia; they just wish something would be done to fix the problems before they become worse.
- Community Program. Filmed during exhibit Evolution of a Community with introduction by John Kinard (transcribed from physical asset AV003581) and moderated by Almore Dale. AV003581: Part 1. AV003088: Part 2. AV003550: Part 3, poor image quality. Part of Evolution of a Community Audiovisual Records. Dated 19720524. AV003383-3 and AV003383-4: sound only, content overlaps with video recordings, undated.
- Date
- 1972
- Extent
- 3 Video recordings (open reel, 1/2 inch)
- 1 Sound recording (open reel, 1/4 inch)
- Type
- Archival materials
- Video recordings
- Sound recordings
- Topic
- Museums and community
- Community museums
- African Americans
- Communities
- Neighborhoods
- African American neighborhoods
- Churches
- African American churches
- Schools
- Baseball teams
- Recreation centers
- Entrepreneurship
- African American businesspeople
- Business enterprises
- African American business enterprises
- Small business
- Family-owned business enterprises
- Crime
- Police
- Police-community relations
- Migration, Internal
- Social history
- Place
- Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)
- Barry Farms (Washington, D.C.)
- Washington (D.C.)
- United States
- 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.
- Citation
- Down Memory Lane, Exhibition Records AV03-040, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
- Identifier
- ACMA.03-040, Item ACMA AV003581
- Local Numbers
- ACMA AV003088 ACMA AV003550 ACMA AV003383-3 ACMA AV003383-4
- General
- Title transcribed from physical asset.
Related Content
1 result(s)-
Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition Records
- Scope and Contents
- The records of the Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition presented by the Anacostia Community Museum measure 5.83 linear feet and date from 1898 to 1988. Included are exhibit administrative files, lists of images, press releases for the promotion of the exhibit, oral history transcripts and permission forms, and extensive research files into the Anacostia community in southeast Washington D.C. The Research Files series contains news clippings, publications, unpublished articles, project files, and research material for the exhibitions. Subjects include local figures and the Barry's Farm neighborhood, unpublished historical narratives, and project records related to archaeological investigations and neighborhood development programs. The Interview series consists of the audio cassettes and transcripts of the oral history interviews collected in 1970-1971 for the Evolution of a Community exhibits. This series also includes interview notes and thank you letters from the museum to the interviewees. Digital audio files are available for some of the oral history interviews. Exhibit File series includes an outline for exhibit themes and proposed layouts, drafts of the exhibit scripts, lists of exhibit objects, promotional press releases, and related correspondence.
- Historical Note
- Evolution of a Community began as a research project to investigate the history of Anacostia through oral histories. This project was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Housing and Urban Development Department, and the Cafritz Foundation of Washington, D.C. The purpose of creating an oral history project was to record Anacostia's history from the perspective of its residents and translate those stories into meaningful and interesting exhibits. Three exhibitions were created from this project by the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum (now Anacostia Community Museum) between 1972 and 1975 The first exhibition was The Evolution of a Community, Part 1: 1608-1955 and was held from February 27, 1972 – August 31, 1972. This exhibition centered on the history of Anacostia from 1608 until shortly after World War II, drawing from the 1970 oral histories interviews with longtime residents. The second exhibition was The Evolution of a Community, Part 2: 1955-Present and was held from September 1, 1972 – December 31, 1972. This exhibition showcased Anacostia's history from 1955 to 1972 and was organized into five major topics: housing, unemployment, education, crime, and drugs. The last exhibition was Anacostia Today: The Evolution of a Community, Part 2: Continued and was held from March 1, 1973 – July 31, 1973. This exhibition was the same exhibition as The Evolution of a Community, Part 2: 1955-Present but brought back for the museum's fifth anniversary and continued its focus on its five major topics.
- Date
- 1898-1988
- Extent
- 5.83 Linear feet (5 boxes)
- Provenance
- Records of the Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition were created by the Anacostia Community Museum.
- 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.
- Citation
- Evolution of a Community: 1972 Exhibition Records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Exhibition catalogs
- Contact sheets
- Correspondence
- Clippings
- Photographic prints
- Negatives
- Exhibition records
- Oral histories (document genres)
- Topic
- Museum exhibits
- African American neighborhoods
- African Americans
- Place
- Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)
- Identifier
- ACMA.03-040