African Art, Frederick Douglass House

Frederick Douglass Capitol Hill townhouse was the first location of the African Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum was started in 1964 by founder, Warren M. Robbins, an art collector and the museum’s first director. The museum not only featured African art but sponsored educational programs on African art and culture. The Smithsonian Institution was asked by Congress to acquire the museum and its contents on October 5, 1978. Eight thousand objects were transferred to the museum on August 13, 1979 and the museum was renamed The National Museum of African Art in 1981.

Contributed by: Anne Brobby