DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center

Chicago museum of African-American topics

The DuSable

Location within the Chicago metropolitan area.

Former name

| Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art</ref>[1]
Established| February 16, 1961
(current location since 1973)
Location| 740 East 56th Place
Chicago, Illinois 60637
U.S.
Coordinates| 41°47′32″N 087°36′26″W﻿ / ﻿41.79222°N 87.60722°W﻿ / 41.79222; -87.60722
Type| History museum, Art museum
Chair|

* Carol Mosely Braun

President| Perri L. Irmer
Website| www.dusablemuseum.org

The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, formerly the DuSable Museum of African American History, is a museum in Chicago that is dedicated to the study and conservation of African-American history, culture, and art named after Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. It was founded in 1961 by Margaret 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 an affiliation with the Smithsonian Institution.

## History

[edit]

### Founding

[edit]

The DuSable Black History Museum was chartered on February 16, 1961.[3] Its origins as the Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art began in the work of Margaret and Charles Burroughs, Bernard Goss, and others to correct the perceived omission of black history and culture in the education establishment.[4][5][6] The museum was originally located on the ground floor of the Burroughses' home at 3806 S. Michigan Avenue.[5][7][8] In 1968, the museum was renamed for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a fur trader of black African ancestry and the first non-Native-American permanent settler in Chicago.[9][10] During the 1960s, the museum and the South Side Community Art Center, which was located across the street, founded in 1941 by Taylor-Burroughs and dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt,[11] formed an African-American cultural corridor.[9] This original museum site had previously been a social club [12] and boarding house for African-American railroad workers and is now listed as a Chicago Landmark and on the National 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, including Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.[9]

### Expansion

[edit]

In 1973, the Chicago Park District donated the usage of a park administration building in Washington Park as the site for the museum.[6][7] The current location once served as a lockup facility for the Chicago Police Department.[7] In 1993, the museum expanded with the addition of a new wing named in honor of the late Mayor Harold Washington,[6] the first African-American mayor of Chicago.[14] In 2004, the original building became a contributing building to the Washington Park United States Registered Historic District which is a National Register of Historic Places listing.[15][16]

The DuSable Black History Museum is the oldest, and — before the founding of the National 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 the Smithsonian Institution.[22]

## Collection

[edit]

The Harold Washington Wing

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 activist Ida B. Wells, the violin of poet Paul 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 has United 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 scholar W. E. B. Du Bois, sociologist St. Clair Drake, and poet Langston Hughes. The African-American art collection contains selections from the South Side Community Art Center students Charles White, Richard Hunt,[25] Archibald Motley, Jr., Gus Nall, Charles Sebree, and Marion Perkins, as well as numerous New Deal Works Progress Administration period and 1960s Black Arts Movement works. The museum also owns prints and drawings by Henry O. Tanner, Richmond Barthé, and Romare Bearden, and has an extensive collection of books and records pertaining to African and African-American history and culture.[9][26]

## Facilities

[edit]

The original north entrance contains the main lobby of the museum and features the Thomas Miller mosaics, which honor the institution's founders. The building was designed c.1915 by D.H. Burnham and Company to serve as the South Park Administration Building in Washington Park on the city's South Side.[6] The new wing is 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2). The museum has a 466-seat auditorium, 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 million matching 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]

## Key people

[edit]

* Carol Mosely Braun, Board Chair (April 2025 - )[28]
* Perri L. Irmer, President and CEO (September 2015 - )[29]

## See also

[edit]

* Barzillai Lew – Lew Family
* List of museums focused on African Americans
* List of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago
* Funky Turns 40: Black Character Revolution

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "In 1961, with a few dedicated colleagues and a dream, the artist/educator/writer/activist Margaret Taylor Burroughs established our nation’s first independent museum celebrating Black culture. The Ebony Museum of Negro History and Art was inaugurated that very year in the Burroughs’ home on Chicago’s iconic South Side." DuSable Museum.
2. ^ Rocksborough-Smith, Ian (Fall 2011). "Margaret T.G. Burroughs and Black Public History in Cold War Chicago". The Black Scholar. 41 (3): 26–42\. doi:10.5816/blackscholar.41.3.0026. JSTOR 10.5816/blackscholar.41.3.0026. S2CID 146200073.
3. ^ a b "Oldest Black Museum Celebrates 32nd Anniversary". Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. February 1993. p. 50.
4. ^ Simpson, Moira G. (1966). Making Representations - Museums in the Post-Colonial Era. London: Routledge. p. 97.
5. ^ a b "Margaret Burroughs Biography". The HistoryMakers. June 12, 2000. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
6. ^ a b c d e f "About DuSable Museum". DuSable Museum of African American History. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
7. ^ a b c d e "Chicago Attractions: DuSable Museum of African-American History". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 30, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
8. ^ "DuSable Museum of African-American History". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 18, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
9. ^ a b c d e f Dickerson, Amina J. (2005). "DuSable Museum". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago History Museum. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
10. ^ Wade, Betsy (July 14, 1991). "Practical Traveler; Tracing the Trail Of Black History". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
11. ^ "South Side Community Art Center". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago History Museum. 2005. Archived from the original on August 30, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
12. ^ "City of Chicago | Landmarks web – Landmark Details – Griffiths-Burroughs House". Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
13. ^ "National Register of Historic Places-Griffiths, John W., Mansion". Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
14. ^ Johnson, Dirk (November 26, 1987). "Chicago's Mayor Washington Dies After a Heart Attack in His Office". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
15. ^ Bachrach, Julia Sniderman (July 2, 2004). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Washington Park" (PDF). United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2009. Retrieved April 1, 2009.
16. ^ "Illinois – Cook County – Historic Districts". National Register of Historic Places. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2009.
17. ^ Rotenberk, Lori (February 4, 1992). "DuSable Museum to get new look". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
18. ^ Jackson, Cheryl V. (February 1, 2005). "DuSable plans expansion as others falter". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
19. ^ Schmidt, William E. (November 4, 1990). "What's Doing In; Chicago". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
20. ^ a b c Kinzer, Stephen (February 22, 2001). "Arts in America; A Struggle to Be Seen". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 30, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
21. ^ Williams, Lena (December 8, 1988). "Black Memorabilia: The Pride and the Pain". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
22. ^ "DuSable Museum named as Smithsonian Institution affiliate". Crain's Chicago Business. Associated Press. March 25, 2016. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
23. ^ Wade, Betsy (July 14, 1991). "Practical Traveler; Tracing the Trail Of Black History". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
24. ^ Schulman, Daniel (September 8, 2008). "Design Journeys: Charles Dawson". AIGA. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
25. ^ Introduction by Courtney J. Martin. Text by John Yau, Jordan Carter, LeRonn Brooks. Interview by Adrienne Childs. (2022). Richard Hunt. Gregory R. Miller & Co. ISBN 9781941366448.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
26. ^ "Lincoln Speaks to Freedmen on the Steps of the Capital at Richmond". CivilWarinArt.org. Archived from the original on March 27, 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
27. ^ Messner, Matthew (December 29, 2018). "Chicago's DuSable Museum converts a horse stable into a powerful space". Architects Newspaper. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
28. ^ The Chicago Defender (April 8, 2025). Carol Moseley Braun Named Board Chair of DuSable Black History Museum.
29. ^ Perri Irmer. The Chicago Network.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to DuSable Museum of African American History.

* Official website
* DuSable Museum of African American History on Google Cultural Institute
* Johnson, Steve (September 17, 2014). "DuSable Museum of African American History: Filling your mind, not your day". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 18, 2014.

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