 | |
  Location within theChicago metropolitan area | |
Former name | Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art[1] |
|---|---|
| Established | February 16, 1961 (current location since 1973) |
| Location | 740 East 56th Place Chicago,Illinois 60637 U.S. |
| Coordinates | 41°47′32″N087°36′26″W / 41.79222°N 87.60722°W /41.79222; -87.60722 |
| Type | History museum,Art museum |
| Chair | |
| President | Perri L. Irmer |
| Website | www.dusablemuseum.org |
The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, formerly theDuSable Museum of African American History, is amuseum inChicago that is dedicated to the study and conservation ofAfrican-American history,culture, andart.
It was named afterJean Baptiste Point du Sable. It was founded in 1961 byMargaret Taylor-Burroughs, her husband Charles Burroughs, Gerard Lew, Eugene Feldman, Bernard Goss,Marian M. Hadley, and others.[2] They established the museum to celebrate black culture, at the time overlooked by most museums and academic establishments. The museum has anaffiliation with theSmithsonian Institution.
The DuSable Black History Museum was chartered on February 16, 1961.[3] Its origins as theEbony Museum of Negro History and Art began in the work of Margaret and Charles Burroughs, Bernard Goss, and others to correct the perceived omission ofblack history and culture in the education establishment.[4][5][6] The museum was originally located on the ground floor ofthe Burroughses' home at 3806 S.Michigan Avenue.[5][7][8] In 1968, the museum was renamed forJean Baptiste Point du Sable, a fur trader of black African ancestry and the first non-Native-American permanent settler inChicago.[9][10] During the 1960s, the museum and theSouth Side Community Art Center, which was located across the street, founded in 1941 by Taylor-Burroughs and dedicated byEleanor Roosevelt,[11] formed an African-American cultural corridor.[9] This original museum site had previously been a social club[12] andboarding house for African-American railroad workers and is now listed as aChicago Landmark and on theNational Register of Historic Places.[9][13]
The DuSable Black History 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, includingBoston,Los Angeles, andPhiladelphia.[9]
In 1973, theChicago Park District donated the usage of a park administration building inWashington Park as the site for the museum.[6][7] The current location once served as a lockup facility for theChicago Police Department.[7] In 1993, the museum expanded with the addition of a new wing named in honor of the late MayorHarold Washington,[6] the first African-American mayor ofChicago.[14] In 2004, the original building became a contributing building to the Washington ParkUnited States Registered Historic District which is aNational Register of Historic Places listing.[15][16]
The DuSable Black History Museum is the oldest, and—before the founding of theNational Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016—the 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.[17] This willingness to adapt has allowed it to survive while other museums faltered due to a weakening economy and decreased public support.[18] The museum was the eighth one located on Park District land.[6] Although it focuses on exhibiting African-American culture, it is one of several Chicago museums that celebrates Chicago's ethnic and cultural heritage.[19]
Antoinette Wright, director of the DuSable Black History 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.[20] In the 1980s, African-American museums such as the DuSable endured the controversy of whether negative aspects of the cultural history should be memorialized.[21] In the 1990s, the African-American genre of museum began to flourish despite financial difficulties.[20] In 2016, the museum formed an affiliation with theSmithsonian Institution.[22]
The new wing contains a permanent exhibit on Washington with memorabilia, personal effects and surveys highlights of his political career.[7] The museum also serves as the city's primary memorial to du Sable.[6] Highlights of its collection include the desk of activistIda B. Wells, theviolin of poetPaul Laurence Dunbar,[23] and the Charles Dawson Papers.[24]
The museum has a collection of 13,000 artifacts, books, photographs, art objects, and memorabilia.[7] The DuSable collection has come largely from private gifts. It hasUnited 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 scholarW. E. B. Du Bois, sociologistSt. Clair Drake, and poetLangston Hughes. The African-American art collection contains selections from theSouth Side Community Art Center studentsCharles White,Richard Hunt,[25]Archibald Motley, Jr.,Gus Nall, Charles Sebree, and Marion Perkins, as well as numerousNew DealWorks Progress Administration period and 1960s Black Arts Movement works. The museum also owns prints and drawings byHenry O. Tanner,Richmond Barthé, andRomare Bearden, and has an extensive collection of books and records pertaining to African and African-American history and culture.[9][26]
The original north entrance contains the main lobby of the museum and features theThomas Miller mosaics, which honor the institution's founders. The building was designedc. 1915 byD.H. Burnham and Company to serve as the South Park Administration Building in Washington Park on the city'sSouth Side.[6] The new wing is 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2). The museum has a 466-seatauditorium, 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.[20] The museum's funding is partially dependent upon a Chicago Park District tax levy.[9]
After the 1993 expansion of the new wing, the museum contained 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) of exhibition space. The $4 million expansion was funded by a $2 millionmatching funds grant from city and state officials.[3] In addition, the museum has been working on preserving and expanding facilities in a nearby architecturally significant roundhouse.[27]
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