Object Details
Interviewer
Lowe, Gail Sylvia
Names
African American Museum in Philadelphia
African American Museums Association
African Meetinghouse (Boston, Mass.)
Anacostia Community Museum
Anacostia Museum
Anacostia Neighborhood Museum
Carver Theater (Washington, DC)
National Center of Afro-American Artists. Museum
Parting Ways, the Museum of Afro-American Ethnohistory (Plymouth, Mass.)
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society
The Boston Group
Hutchinson, Louise Daniel (19280603-20141012)
Kinard, John, 1936-1989
Martin-Felton, Zora (1930-2022)
Ripley, S. Dillon (Sidney Dillon), 1913-2001
Stewart, Rowena, 1932-
Collection Creator
Anacostia Community Museum
Collection Citation
ACM 25th Anniversary Oral History Project, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Scope and Contents note
Rowena Stewart, former Director of the African American Museum in Philadelphia, The Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, the African American Historical and Cultural Museum, and the Motown Historical Museum and the American Jazz Museum, discusses the influence the Anacostia Community Museum had in introducing African American heritage in a museum setting, in serving the Anacostia neighborhood, and in supporting other emerging African American cultural institutions in the 1960s and 1970s. She discusses meeting John Kinard, and the guidance he provided in presenting history through exhibitions and educational programs. She shares her memories of the early days of the Anacostia Museum, the effects of its move from the Carver Theater to the current location, and its ongoing influence.
The interview was conducted by Gail S. Lowe on May 11, 1992. There is background static throughout the recording, but the interview can be heard clearly.
Exhibition mentioned: The Rat: Man's Invited Affliction.
sova.acma.09-034_ref141
Place
Anacostia (Washington, D.C.)
Topic
Social responsibility of business
Civil rights
Community museums
Provenance
Conducted as part of the ACM 25th Anniversary Oral History Project, which includes approximately 100 interviews of residents and influential people of the Anacostia area of Washington, DC.
Interviewer
Lowe, Gail Sylvia
Culture
African Americans
See more items in
ACM 25th Anniversary Oral History Project
Sponsor
This project received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
Biographical / Historical
Rowena Stewart (1932-2015) served as director for four major African American historical museum societies between 1975 and 2002. She was the first director of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society in Providence. Then she served as the Director and Curator of the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum in Philadelphia. In 1992, she moved to Detroit to be the Director for the Motown Historical Museum. She later moved to Kansas City, Missouri, to oversee the development of the American Jazz Museum, becoming its executive director upon its completion in 1997. She retired and moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 2002. During this time, she served as President of the A.L. Lewis Historical Society Board, Coordinator of the American Beach Community Center and Museum, and worked as a consultant to museums.
Extent
1 Sound cassette (original)
1 Sound cassette (copy)
Date
1992 May 11
Container
Box AV 57
Archival Repository
Anacostia Community Museum Archives
Identifier
ACMA.09-034, Item AV001519, AV001627
Type
Archival materials
Audio
Sound cassettes
Oral histories (document genres)
Genre/Form
Oral histories (document genres)
Restrictions
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
ACMA.09-034_ref141
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/qa7e4506e5d-6821-47bc-a08c-6b2eec8e9996
ACMA.09-034
ACMA
Record ID
ebl-1503511968140-1503511968154-5