Chitlin Market and Company records

Object Details

Scope and Contents note

The Chitlin Market and Company was founded in 1995 in Hyattsville, Maryland, by Shauna Renee Anderson. The collection is arranged into five series: Series 1: Career, Series 2: Publicity and Marketing, Series 3: Photographs, Series 4: Audiovisual, and Series 5: Publications. Series 1: Career consists of correspondence and business documents related to the founding and operations of Chitlin Market and Co. and Anderson's other business ventures. Series 2: Publicity and Marketing contains clippings, publications, writing, and promotional and packaging materials. Series 3: Photographs consists of 24 images of Anderson's family, business, and customers. Notable in this series is a signed photograph of singer Diana Ross. Series 4: Audiovisual consists of nine VHS and two cassette tape recordings of media coverage of Anderson's business endeavors. Series 5: Publications consists of three books, two inscribed to Anderson and one a memoir written by Anderson herself.

Biographical/Historical note

Shauna R. Anderson is a statistician, restaurateur, author, film producer, historian, and businesswoman. She was born in the Shaw area, Northwest Washington, DC, in 1954 to Geneva Anderson and Walter Chris Holmes. Her parents were entertainers, and her mother sang professionally under the name Jean Anderson on the Chitlin' Circuit, a network of performance venues in the eastern and southern US where African Americans could safely perform during segregation. Anderson was raised by her maternal grandmother Virginia Lee Battle, who taught her how to prepare chitlins. Anderson had a successful accounting business when she decided to revive the demand for chitlins in the early 90's. She saw a market for high-quality cleaned pork chitterlings, and knew that making them available would offset the loss of a longstanding African American culinary tradition. She founded Chitlin Market and Co., selling chitlins online across the country and from a storefront in Hyattsville, Maryland. Anderson lives in Hyattsville, Maryland, with her daughter Jonvieve, where she still operates her Chitlin Market and Company as a mail-order-only business.

Date

circa 1974–2006

Extent

1.16 Linear feet (2 boxes)

Provenance

The Chitlin Market and Company records were donated to the Anacostia Community Museum in 2006 by Shauna R. Anderson.

Rights

The Chitlin Market and Company records are the physical property of the Anacostia Community Museum. Literary and copyright belong to the author/creator or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, and to obtain permission to publish or reproduce, contact the Museum Archives.

Citation

Chitlin Market and Company records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Shauna R. Anderson.

Type

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Correspondence

Audiovisual materials

Business records

Photographic prints

Photographs

Topic

African American cookery

African American cooks

African American businesspeople

African American business enterprises

Women-owned business enterprises

Place

Hyattsville, (Md.)

Identifier

ACMA.06-019