International African-American Museum Awarded Two Million Dollars in Support by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Slave Trade, Africa, 1899 (Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston, et. al., public domain courtesy of the New York Public Library).

Leaders of a new museum under development in United States have announced important new funding which is expected to greatly enhance African-American family history research across the globe. The two million dollar award was made by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the International African American Museum — a new educational facility which is slated to be built in Charleston, South Carolina, where roughly half of all enslaved Africans were brought after being forcibly transported via the Transatlantic Slave Trade prior to the end of the American Civil War.

The funding is expected to support not just the creation of the IAAM Center for Family History, but to help make it “[o]ne of the crown jewels of the experience at the museum,” according to Joseph P. Riley, the longtime former mayor of Charleston and lifetime IAAM board member. “Because of this generous donation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the center will catapult into a level of excellence that simply would not be achievable” otherwise.

During his announcement of the donation at RootsTech’s 9th family history conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, elder David A. Bednar explained that the church is supporting IAAM’s Center for Family History at this early juncture of its development because its leaders and members “value the strength that comes from learning about … families. The museum will not only educate its patrons on the important contributions of Africans who came through Gadsden’s Wharf and Charleston, it also will help all who visit to discover and connect with ancestors whose stories previously may not have been known.”

Also speaking at the Salt Lake event was Martin Luther King III, son of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The younger King noted that the collaboration between the IAAM and the church was very much in line with the efforts of his father to create a “beloved community.”

Prior to this The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its FamilySearch International were instrumental in increasing access to African heritage records, including letters and contracts which were created immediately after the American Civil War as part of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

When its doors open on the site of the former Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston in the year 2021, the IAAM and its family history center are expected to deliver not only a world-class museum experience, but to serve as a “memorial and site of conscience” which will help visitors better understand and appreciate “the history, sacrifices and contributions of Americans of African descent,” in a way that “contribute[s] to a more complete and honest articulation of American history.”

Lt.Robert Anderson: letters from the front in WW1

Words from a World War I soldier. With treasures like these, the Wilson County Public Library’s WordPress blog is one to follow for anyone who enjoys #History or #Genealogy.

Wilson County Public Library Local History and Genealogy Blog

In 2014 the 100th anniversary of the First World War arrived. It has become a war that feels nearly as distant as the Civil War or the American Revolution. It is a war that was known for its high death toll as modern technology introduced machine guns, airplanes, and tanks to the battlefield. It is important to remember the men of that war as individuals, not merely numbers on a tally.
Among those men was First Lieutenant Robert B. Anderson of Wilson, North Carolina. Robert was mortally wounded at the Battle of Cantigny on May 29th, 1918, dying at an aid station a short time later. For his bravery he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (US) and the Croix DeGuerre (France).

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The Anderson family has preserved keepsakes of Lt. Anderson’s service. Most cherished among these are three written before his death.
The first was to his father written…

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Time to Clean Out That Attic: National Endowment for the Humanities awards Common Heritage Community History grants

Love letters in grandma’s attic? Photos of unlabeled “mystery men” dressed in Civil War uniforms? A Purple Heart quietly tucked away in your dad’s old box of World War II memorabilia (and never mentioned to you or your siblings)? Paperwork which confirms the war-time service of your family’s very own Rosie the Riveter?

You just never know what you’ll find tucked away in the desk drawers, attics or basements of your parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents. But thanks to the National Endowment for Humanities, you’ve finally been given the nudge you need to dust off and explore those old family boxes which have been ignored for far too long.

On Dec. 16, 2015, the NEH announced that it had awarded nearly half a million dollars to city governments, county museums, historical societies, public libraries, and other public benefit groups “to bring historical records and artifacts currently hidden in family attics and basements across the country” into the light of day in order to “make them digitally available to the wider public and for posterity.”

The first grants ever awarded by the NEH under the Common Heritage program, which was launched in April 2015, will support preservation by the Town of Westborough, Massachusetts of recently discovered pre-Revolutionary War documents; Sonoma State University’s plan to digitize artifacts, documents and photographs held by internees of the Amache Japanese interment camp; an outreach program by the Holyoke, Massachusetts Public Library to preserve the records, photographs and oral testimonies of Latino elders; digitization by Knox College of memoirs, photographs, records, and other materials documenting the 19th century Underground Railroad and 20th century Civil Rights histories of the African American community in Galesburg, Illinois; digitization by the Marquette County Museum of family photographs and records which illustrate Michigan’s Finnish American history; outreach and training by the Museum of Chinese in America to teach the public how to preserve, store and share photographs and other treasured family heirlooms; and digitization by the University of Southern Maine of materials documenting the wartime experiences of Maine’s Franco-American residents.

According to the NEH, many of the organizations receiving grants during this first funding round will “host ‘digitization days’ encouraging members of the public to share materials important to their family or community histories, such as photographs, artifacts, family letters, and works of art,” and will also provide owners with free copies of their digitized items. In addition, with permission of the owners, each grantee will then make the newly digitized family treasures “publicly available through the institution’s online collections.”

This new NEH grant program is a big win for professional and amateur historians, genealogists and Americans of all ages. So, don’t be shy – and don’t be a slow poke. Stop what you’re doing right now, locate the key to an unexplored trunk in your home or local historical society, and start investigating. America’s future history students and your own descendants will thank you.

To learn more about the Common Heritage Community History program and rally your family members or fellow historical society volunteers for the next grant cycle, visit The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square. This website also provides information about additional NEH efforts and funding opportunities to “enhance the role of the humanities in civic life.”

 

Photograph: Mrs. Chandler’s New England attic, Landaff, Grafton County, New Hampshire, Irving Rusinow, photographer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 March 1941. Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (public domain).