National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC

Over the Fourth of July weekend, we braved the downtown Washington, D.C., crowds and visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It's part of the Smithsonian Museums.

National Museum of African American History and Culture

We started in the lobby which features a film introducing the museum. Overhead is Swing Low, a bronze sculpture that evokes the fluid motion of a band of angels. Crafted by Richard Hunt, it is inspired by the famous Negro spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

Swing Low

We descended to the bottom of the museum to tour the historical part of the museum. The exhibits begin with the arrival of African slaves in the 1600s.

Collar and chain from slave trade

The largest mainland slave revolt in the English colonies was the Stono Rebellion in 1739. Twenty slaves rose up under Jemmy, a literate enslaved man, and they marched toward Spanish Florida for freedom. The South Carolina militia chased them down, killing most of the rebels, whose number had swollen close to a hundred as they traveled. 

Drum from 18th c. South Carolina

During the American War for Independence, much like the rest of the people in the colonies, there were Blacks who supported the cause for independence and who supported British control of the colonies.

Black Patriots (to the US cause)

Black Loyalist (to the UK cause)

The next exhibit looks at the tension between the Founding Fathers' fight for freedom alongside the acceptance of slavery. Plenty of black freedmen and women contributed to the early United States in spite of cultural biases against them. 

Paradox of Liberty

Richard Allen was born a slave in Philadelphia in 1760. He converted to Methodism, bought his freedom, and became a preacher to whites and black along the east coast. He founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church after frustration with an integrated church in Philadelphia that became less integrated over time.

Richard Allen and his money box

Phyllis Wheatley was a popular poet during the American War for Independence, publishing a book called Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral. 

Elizabeth Wheatley

Benjamin Banneker was a gentleman scientist living near Ellicott Mills, Maryland. He was hired as part of the survey team for the District of Columbia, laying out the border stones that can still be found today.

Benjamin Banneker

One of the big economic drivers that preserved slavery was the invention of the cotton gin in the 1790s. Before this machine, cotton seeds had to be removed by hand in a laborious process. The new speed of processing made growing cotton more valuable. Without an engine to harvest cotton, human labor was used to work the fields, perpetuating the need for low-cost labor that slavery filled.

The Cotton Gin

A haunting display is this stone platform that was used during slave auctions to "display the wares" to people bidding to own other people.

Auction stone

Harriett Tubman was given a lace shawl by Queen Victoria in 1897 in recognition of her valuable work helping slaves flee along the Underground Railroad before the American Civil War. She became a spy for the North during the war. After the war, she became an advocate for civil rights for blacks and for women.

Tubman Shawl

The next section describes the American Civil War, with a map showing the then-extant states and how they voted in the 1860 presidential election that put Abraham Lincoln in the nation's highest office.

Election results in 1860

Displays show photos and items from the Colored Troops who served for the Union during the Civil War.

Blacks fighting in the American Civil War

The historical displays continued on through Reconstruction all the way to the Civil Rights era in the 1960s. We were hungry for lunch and moved on to the cafeteria.

After lunch, we went to the upstairs displays which are focused on culture. One interactive exhibit has visitors choose a driving path for some Chicagoans visiting relatives down south. On the way, big cities would have more restaurant and hotels that catered to black clientele. The Green Book was a directory of friendly garages, restaurants, hotels, and other places across the nation. During the period of Jim Crow laws, where segregation was the law in some jurisdictions, the Green Book was a handy tool to have.

Driving exhibit

Info about Jim Crow and the Green Book

Interactive screens on items owned by but not displayed at the museum

One hall presents the various religions of African-Americans, running the typical gamut of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and other religions.

Religious items from African American communities

From a Catholic Church in New Orleans

Another hall chronicles military service by the different major American wars.

Uniforms through the years

WWII items

Mid- to late-1900s conflicts

Another section shows farming techniques brought to the Americas from Africa, like this exhibit on developing tidal rice fields.

Tidal rice field development

This statue of Mary McLeod Bethune is a copy of the one in the United States Capitol Building. Each state has two statues in the Capitol's rotunda. Bethune represents Florida. She was a civil rights activist in the 1930s and an educator. Her statue replaced a Floridian who was a Confederate general.

Mary McLeod Bethune

Many famous athletes came from the African American community. Pele was a famous Brazilian soccer player in the mid-1900s.

Pele!

Serena and Venus Williams are sisters who were tennis sensations in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Williams sisters

Michael Jordan is perhaps the most famous basketball player in the world. His statue seemingly floats off the ground as he takes his shot. 

Michael Jordan

Jackie Robbins was the first black player in Major League Baseball, playing as #42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His legacy of breaking down barriers has been an inspiration for almost a century.

Dodgers memorabilia

Base-stealing!

The museum had a lot more that we didn't get to see. What I did see was a lot less "woke" than I was anticipating. Lots of it does not look at the African-American experience through the lenses of oppression and victimhood. Of course, historically there has been oppression and victimization, but many men and women rose to their historic occasion and beyond it, making achievements every American should be proud of.

Cute Kid Pix August 2026

More photos that didn't make their own post...

We went downtown to Washington just before the Fourth of July weekend and saw a bit of the Great American State Fair festivities without actually going into any venues indoors or outdoors. We went to see the National Museum of African American History and Culture (part of the Smithsonian museums that we are working our way through). That will get its own post later, but we did see some cool stuff downtown.

Washington Monument

A mobile museum

A concert stage by the Metro entrance

Following a subway system on social media seems pathetic

We celebrated the Fourth at home with an American Flag pancake for breakfast and a cookout for dinner.

Pretty big flippin' problem

Obviously the back of the flag

Plate of meat with corn cakes and white wine

A few days later, I went geocaching at Montpelier Mansion, a house dating back to the War for Independence. George Washington visited several times!

By the back door

I went geocaching Frederick, Maryland, where Francis Scott Key is buried. It was fun for a cemetery!

Francis Scott Key Memorial

World War II Memorial

Nearby, on the campus of the Maryland School for the Deaf is the Hessian Barracks. The building dates back to the War for Independence. Captured Hessian mercenaries were imprisoned here. The building went through various other uses over the years. Right by the interpretive signs is "The Great Baby Waker," a cannon that burst in 1844 and killed its gunner. 

Hessian Barracks

Don't wake the baby!

Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Washington DC

The National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which manages most of the museums on the National Mall. We visited on a Sunday with free street parking.

Mall-side entrance to Natural History Museum

Like in previous museum trips, we let each family member pick out an exhibit to visit. Our first exhibit was Fossil Hall on the main floor.

Entering the past

The exhibit is set up in chronological order, though we started at the most recent part of the millions of years of history. A time line shows the various ages and the mass extinction events that separate them.

Looking at history

The skeletons here (with some added bits to fill out what archeologists could not find) are more familiar shapes, like horses and deer.

A recent ancestor to current animals

I hope that skeleton in the back isn't doing what it looks like it is doing!

Primal primate

Soon enough, we were back in dinosaur ages.

Rodin's Thinker as a dino?

Fun interactive exhibit

One display dispelled the idea that oil comes from dead dinosaurs. Creatures with shells and bones left petrified remains. A lot of the oil finds are in areas that were oceans or shallow bays, where a lot of invertebrates like plankton and microscopic organisms fell to the bottom of the sea. As layers of sediment covered the organic material, it broke down and formed into oil and natural gas.

Origins of oil

A stegosaur!

A fish with too many bones

Around a corner, a research area lets visitors see scientists working on fossils from around the world. Well, you would see them working if you didn't visit on a Sunday.

Asking for help with their science!

An off-to-the-side display showed dinosaur poop, including this sample that they think was from a T-rex. They could tell because there is some undigested bone in it, so definitely from a carnivore. Also, the tyrannosaur was the only carnivore big enough to have a turd this large.

Dino-dung, not worth stealing

Mammoth with some recreated bones (maybe Loki stole the tusks for his helmet?)

Next, we went upstairs to the gems and minerals exhibit, the main attraction being the Hope Diamond. 

Hope Diamond, definitely worth stealing

Ronald Winston donated a set of "Fancy Color Diamonds" ranging from pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, white, grey, and black. It's much more impressive to see in person. Most diamonds don't have a color outside of white.

Winston Fancy Color Diamonds

This aquamarine gem is the largest in the world at 10,363 carats. Jeweler Bernd Munsteiner named this "Dom Pedro" after the first two emperors of Brazil (where the original, sixty-pound crystal was found in 1980s Brazil). 

Dom Pedro Aquamarine

These diamond earrings belong to French Empress Marie Antoinette. 

Marie Antoinette earrings

The Logan Sapphire was cut from a Sri Lankan crystal and weighs 423 carats. The lighting does a great job highlighting the beauty of the gem.

Logan Sapphire

Further into the exhibit are less precious stone. You can tell because you are allowed to touch them!

Another interactive exhibit

A case full of crystals

Stibnite that looks like nails with barite that looks like mini-snowballs

Part of the exhibit simulates a cave where mining of gems happens.

You'd think this would be interactive

The cave leads into the Geology exhibit that talks about the earth was formed.

Making magma?

Meteorite (space poop?)

Display of southern space stones

We went for a snack next. By the cafe is a recreation of a megalodon, a gigantic shark that looks quite fearsome. Maybe we were supposed to be the snack.

Fish out of water

Me inside the jaws of another shark

The museum is famous for its African Bush Elephant located in the main rotunda. Around it are displays about Africa elephants.

Seen from upstairs

We decided to try out the Cellphone: Unseen Connections exhibit though we had low expectations.

Poor primate

Info in a friendly format

Some displays showed the history of cell phones, going back to the big clunky ones like I used to own twenty-five years ago. Another display shows elements used to build phones, including a jar of oxygen. I kid you not, check the photo below.

Not worth stealing

A timeline unlike the Fossil Hall exhibit

My kids played a roll-and-move game. I wasn't paying any attention to it so I do not know what they learned from it.

RU Serious?

The next hall had an exhibit on mummies, which I was interested in, but the rest of the family was "museumed out" so we went through quickly on the way to the exit. 

Burial masks

More funerary fun!

The live butterfly pavilion was closed, otherwise we probably would have visited that too. I guess it pays to check the website before going!