Banneker-Douglass Museum |
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| 84 Franklin St. | |
| Annapolis, MD 21401 | |
| 410-974-2893 | |
|
Hours:
Tue-Fri 10:00AM-3:00PM, Sat 12:00AM-4:00PM | |
| What's nearby: | |
The Banneker-Douglass Museum is named for Benjamin Banneker, the
Maryland-born mathematician who helped survey and lay out the District of
Columbia, and Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery to become a leader of
the abolition movement. The museum functions as Maryland's official home of
African-American material culture. Annual activities at the museum include
workshops, performances and a variety of preservation, arts and cultural
lectures. Guided exhibition tours are available upon request and exhibits
may also be arranged for loan or travel. The museum collections include
historical documents, rare books, videotapes, oral histories and
photographs relevant to African-American life in Maryland. Archival materials, which
also include African and African-American art, are available for use in the
non-lending library by appointment.
The museum is located in the former Mt. Moriah AME Church, built in 1874 by
free blacks. After a two-year legal battle that was resolved in 1974, the
Church became designated by the National Register of Historic Places as a
site that could not be torn down. It is the first African-American institution in
Annapolis to be preserved for its historic value. Work on the museum's
expansion is scheduled to begin in 2002.--Meital Waibsnaider
