John and Vada Somerville, Los Angeles, California, 1912. Vada Somerville was the first woman dentist in the State of California.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is busy creating its foundational collections. These collections will contribute to the museum's research, exhibitions, and programs and be a part of the museum's opening exhibitions in the new building. Our purpose is to collect and preserve artifacts, documents, and art that reflect the history and development of the African American experience in its many aspects. Subjects will include the era of slavery, the period of Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the civil rights movement. The museum's foundational collections will be representative, featuring items from all regions of the United States. Artifacts and artwork that reflect the historical and cultural links of African Americans to the African Diaspora, such as in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Canada, will also be collected. Cultural material being collected by the museum includes works of art, historical artifacts, photographs, moving images, archival documents, electronic data, audio recordings, books and manuscripts.

The new museum is unlike other Smithsonian museums in that it does not begin with a collection. Developing and caring for a nationally and internationally significant collection of materials that reflects the diversity of the African American experience provides the Smithsonian's newly authorized National Museum of African American History and Culture with an array of challenges and opportunities. The museum is currently developing its collections policy and plan that will determine the scope and nature of the Museum's collections.

The new Museum's collections will be different than those in other Smithsonian museums. The Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum began as a neighborhood museum in 1967 and has strong collections documenting family and community history of African Americans. The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art, located on the National Mall, is devoted to the art of the continent of Africa. The new museum, however, will be national in scope and will cover topics as varied as slavery, post-Civil War Reconstruction, the civil rights movement, African American cultural expressions and the African Diaspora.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture, like all other Smithsonian museums, hopes to benefit from donations of artifacts and archival documents. Due to the volume of offers we cannot accept donated materials through the mail without prior communication.

If you have artifacts or documents that you believe would complement the Museum's collections, please make a formal donation offer in writing. Use the Donation Form (pdf) to provide the Museum with important information about your collection or collection item.

Mailing Address:
PO Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012