The Making of an Artist

From Dr. Joni Jones:

Last night, Genevieve Kaplan and I attended the 1st Annual Performing and Visual Arts Gala at the Wiley H. Bates Middle School & MD Hall Integrated Arts Campus. This evening of students and the arts marked the re-opening of the site as an arts magnet school. Their performing and visual arts magnet program with focus on three areas: dance, visual arts and music. In addition to the arts-integrated core classes, there will be artists-in-residence to work with the students.

After the opening remarks, remarks by dignitaries (who were primarily introduced by the BMS students—a job well done, I might add), and ribbon cutting, the large crowd was treated to performances, art installations, and talks throughout the integrated campus. Genevieve and I focused on the African drumming, the string ensemble, and then the works by Paint Annapolis. The Commission and the BDM will definitely work to partner with this campus, so stay tuned.

Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture Annual Meeting

Interested in learning more about Maryland's African American history and culture? Want to be a part of the effort to better preserve and share that history and culture? Then come to the Maryland Commision on African American History and Culture's Annual Meeting to find out how you can get involved!

Thursday, October 15, 2009
10:00 a.m.
Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center
1101 Smithville St.
Annapolis, MD 21401
Free
Registration not required.

Field Trips

Remember when you were in school and how exciting it was when the class got to go on a field trip? One of the great things about my job is that not only do I to get to host several field trips every year, but I am also still able to go on on field trips. The only difference is that field trips are now called "professional development days." During professional development days, we visit museums in the area and learn about how and why these museums do what they do and see if we can use this information in our institution. This is pretty much like professional development days for anyone else, however given the nature of what we do, our trips are always to museums.

Last week, the entire staff of the Banneker-Douglass Museum went on a professional development day trip to two museums in Washington, DC - the Newseum and the National Museum of American History. We went to the Newseum to look at their temporary exhibit G-Men and Journalists in order to get ideas for two exhibitions we will install in 2010 on law enforcement themes. While there, we received a great tour of the museum from Patty Rhule, a Project Editor at the Newseum and one of the writers for the G-Men exhibit. She walked us through the exhibit pointing out some of the key artifacts and giving us an insider perspective on how the exhibit was put together. I would definitely encourage people to go check this exhibition out. It is on temporary display at the museum through the end of 2009.

While at the National Museum of American History, the staff saw the The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise in the National Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery on the second floor of the museum. The tour was led by exhibition co-curators Michelle Delaney, associate curator of the Photographic History Collection at the National Museum of American History and Paul Gardullo of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This exhibition was a collaborative effort between two museums to display images of black Washington, DC during the 20th century from the Skurlock Studio. After the tour, the BDM staff met with Deborra Richardson, David Haberstich, and Vanessa Broussard Simmons from the Archives Center at the museum and talked about the exhibition and how they process their collections. This exhibit will be on display at the National Museum of American History through 28 February 2010.

Quite a field trip, er, professional development day, if I do say so myself.

Sylvia Gaither Garrison Library News

Hello, everyone! My name is Lynn Waller, and I am the Archivist for the Sylvia Gaither Garrison Library (SGGL) at the Banneker-Douglass Museum (BDM). I received my BS degree in Psychology from Howard University, and a Master’s of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland.

This summer the SGGL at the BDM provided an opportunity for two IMPART interns. Kristin Wisor and Nicole Hill served as the SGGL at the BDM’s IMPART interns for this past summer. IMPART consists of an assortment of private and public organizations that provide training opportunities for young professionals with the hope that they will seek employment within Maryland’s tourism industry. BDM is a proud partner of IMPART.

Kristin attends Salisbury University, where she majors in Education and minors in Math. This semester she plans to intern, as a student teacher, at Berlin Intermediate School and Wicomico Middle School. Once she graduates from college, she desires to teach Math to middle school students. Kristin loves the hit comedy, The Office, and hopes to watch every episode this season. Additionally, Kristin sings, writes, and records her own pop and country music.

During the summer, Kristin served as the Paper Archives Assistant. In that capacity, she created the finding aids for the BDM Archives, the BDM Photo Archives, the Wayne Clark Collection, and the Dr. Herbert M. Frisby Collection. She also assisted me with the organization of the Steven C. Newsome Collection. She helped Dr. Jones and I further organize the Maryland Repository of African American Heritage, discovering an issue of the Maryland Journal--which was published on August 20, 1773--in the process. She also aided me in processing some of the vertical files, including the research regarding the Banneker-Douglass Museum’s 25th Anniversary documentary: From Cause to Reality: The Story of the Banneker-Douglass Museum.

Nicole Hill attends the University of Maryland at Eastern Shore (UMES), where she studies Criminal Justice. As for her future plans, she is contemplating attending law school. At UMES, she plays three positions on the softball team for the Lady Hawks: catcher, third baseman, and shortstop. In her spare time, she enjoys playing softball and reading romance and teen novels.

Throughout this past summer, she served us as the Photo Archives Assistant. In that position, she organized all of the photographs within the BDM Photo Archives, by putting them in the proper binders. In addition, she also created an inventory, where she entered all of the metadata of the photographs: the name of the people within the photograph, the name of the photographer, and the size of the picture.

In addition to their duties as IMPART interns, Kristin and Nicole also volunteered to assist Genevieve Kaplan, BDM’s Education & Public Programs Manager, with the Underground Railroad Conductor, a summer program hosted by the museum. While attending the program, participants received the opportunity to learn about the lives of Marylanders of African descent. At the beginning of the program, Genevieve taught the participants some of the language and secret messages conductors and passengers used to communicate along the Underground Railroad. Then, she asked the participants to form groups. Once they formed groups, she assigned each group the task of developing a message, using the language of the Underground Railroad. After each group created a message, one after another, they sought to convey it to the other groups. After every group attempted to convey their message to the other groups, they wrote about the experience on a worksheet. When the participants came across difficulty in expressing their thoughts regarding their experience, Kristin and Nicole assisted them, using their college training in Grammar and Literature.

As you can see, it was a productive summer for the IMPART interns at BDM. Kristin and Nicole are both wonderful young women. We wish them great success in their future endeavors!

Frisby Collection

HERBERT M. FRISBY COLLECTION, ca. 1890 – 1980

Herbert Frisby (1886-1983) pursued knowledge, traveled widely, and educated others through his writings and lectures. A young Frisby became fascinated by Matthew Henson, the first African American to explore the North Pole. As one of the first African American war correspondents, Frisby covered the construction of the Alcan Highway, connecting Alaska with Canada. Frisby made twenty-six trips to the Arctic regions, culminating in 1957 with his fly over of the North Pole to deposit a memorial to his childhood hero, Matthew Henson.

Frisby filled his home, which he dubbed “The Igloo,” with geological specimens, animal furs, photos, and audio tapes, souvenirs collected during his Arctic trips. The entire collection was donated to BDM in 1979 and also includes family history, documentation of his teaching, speaking, and military careers.

Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture

Let me introduce myself: I am Joni Jones, executive director of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (MCAAHC). MCAAHC’s mission is to preserve, promote and interpret Maryland’s African American Heritage. We are administered by the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives. For more information on us, check out our website: http://www.africanamerican.maryland.gov/

The MCAAHC also operates the Banneker-Douglass Museum (BDM)—the State’s official repository of African American history and culture. The BDM offers compelling exhibits and programs, and it collects art objects, memorabilia, manuscripts, photographs, and other articles of significance to MD’s African American history and culture. We hope this blog provides you with timely information about our exhibits, programs, and services. After you’ve checked us out online, we hope you’ll attend a MCAAHC-sponsored event and visit the BDM.

Fall Programs

Be sure to be on the lookout for the latest additions to the Banneker-Douglass Museum's upcoming fall program calendar. We have some great offerings this fall including a quilting workshop led by Dr. Joan M. E. Gaither, the creator of the Journey to the White House quilt, a hands on workshop on Geochaching a new way of scavenger hunting using GPS systems that is fun for the entire family, an oral history workshop on preserving your family's history, and the annual Benjamin Banneker Birthday Party which will be an evening of learning about Banneker's life as an astronomer while exploring the stars with the Anne Arundel Community College Astronomy Club.

We will also be offering talks on photography to go along with our newest exhibition, which will debut later this month. More details to come on the workshops and the exhibition.

Make sure to mark your calendars for this year's annual Sylvia Gaither Garrison Day, honoring the namesake of the museum's library. The event this year will take place on November 7. Information on this program will be coming out soon.

A full calendar of the museum's fall events will be available here, at the museum, and on our website in a few weeks. In the meantime, keep your eyes on this space for individual program announcements.

Museum Hours

I wanted to post a quick note to say that the Banneker-Douglass Museum will be closed over the Labor Day holiday starting on Friday, September 4 running through Monday, September 7. We will reopen on Tuesday, September 8 at 10:00 a.m.

In addition the museum will return to its regular operating hours of Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Banneker-Douglass Museum in the news

In the past few months, the Banneker-Douglass Museum has started appearing in the press quite a bit. Articles ranging from the new Executive Director of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture to mentions in opinion pieces on new efforts to preserve African American history in Maryland have appeared in several newspapers across the state mentiong the museum. I decided to share a few of these stories below. Enjoy!

Banneker-Douglass Museum has new leader in 25th anniversary year
The Capital Newspaper 8/9/09

Museum saves by going green
The Capital Newspaper 8/10/09

Preserving a Legacy
Baltimore Sun 8/17/2009

Blog Changes

Seeking Liberty: Annapolis, An Imagined Community has now officially ended its 15 month run at the Banneker-Douglass Museum. With the end of the exhibition, we had to think about what to do with this blog. About 6 months ago, we polled people on this blog about what they would like us to do and the results are in.

Effective today, the Seeking Liberty blog will morph into a blog covering the Banneker-Douglass Museum. In future postings, the blog will feature posts about our collections, upcoming events, information on happenings around the state, and anything else that strikes the museum staff's fancy.

The archives of the Seeking Liberty postings will remain and you will be able to search back postings through the archives section on this blog. We will continue to post related articles as we come across them. Thanks for your interest in this blog. We hope you will continue to visit!

Last Chance!!

The "Seeking Liberty" exhibit will be on display at the Banneker-Douglass Museum for just two more weeks! The last day to view the exhibit will be Sunday, June 14th. The Museum has switched to summer hours and will keep the following schedule through September 6th:

Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday CLOSED
Tuesday CLOSED
Wednesday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Thursday 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Hope to see you at the museum!

Digging In

Interested in getting your hands dirty and helping on an archaeological dig? Check out the article below from today's Washington Post listing several archaeological sites hosting public digs this weekend.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/14/AR2009051401716.html?hpid=features1&hpv=local

You never know what you will find...

Archaeological finds were in the news in the Capital last week as archaeologists with the Lost Towns Project presented some of their findings during a dig on the Patuxent River. The archaeologists are hoping to find Native American artifacts dating from zero to 900 A.D. to provide evidence of life at the Middle Woodland settlement. What they have found instead are objects dating to time periods before and after, but not their target. Check out the article from the Capital to learn more.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2009/05/04-10/County-archaeologists-uncover-Indian-site.html?ne=1


The Lost Towns Project is sponsoring a public archaeology dig day this Saturday, May 16 from 9:00 a.m until 2:00 p.m. Check out the event listing below for more information.

Dig with professional archaeologists from the Anne Arundel CountyLost Towns Project in search of the lost town of London. No experience required. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.Groups must make reservations in advance.
FREE
Call 410-222-1318 for more information.

Maryland Preservation Conference

The other day I heard about Maryland's Annual Preservation & Revitalization Conference and I thought I would pass on the information...

The conference will take place at the Tremont Grand in Baltimore, Maryland on May 28 and 29. The schedule includes numerous presentations, workshops and tours most of which focus on some aspect of preservation in the city of Baltimore. Many of the presentations look really interesting including one entitled "Promoting and Preserving African-American Heritage in Baltimore and Beyond." This presentation will focus on the different venues in Baltimore that help to tell the story of African-American history in the city. Some of the tours offered will be of Clipper Mill, Baltimore churches and the American Brewery, among many others. There is discount for early registration for the Conference if you register by May 13th. It will be a very interesting and informative couple of days- Hope you can attend!

For more information follow this link to view the Conference Brochure:
http://www.preservationmaryland.org/pdf/pm%20conf%20broch%20webFINAL.pdf

MAC Lab

I thought I would do a quick post on an organization that plays a major part in Maryland archaeology- The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, otherwise known as the MAC Lab. The MAC Lab is located at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum in St. Leonard Maryland about an hour south of Annapolis. The Lab is a state-of-the-art archaeological research, conservation and storage facility that is estimated to hold between 7 and 10 million artifacts. Almost all of the artifact collections housed here were recovered in Maryland with much of the collections coming from archaeology projects carried-out by state and federal agencies within Maryland. Some of the collections housed at the MAC lab were acquired through private donation. The MAC lab is operated by the Maryland State Government through the Maryland Historical Trust.

What some people might not realize is that a majority of archaeology work actually takes place in the lab. It's estimated that for every week spent in the field excavating, at least a month of work is needed to properly clean, catalog, analyze and store the excavated artifacts. A major concern in the field of Archaeology right now is the proper conservation and long-term care of artifact collections. Unfortunately, there are far too many cases of artifact collections that are neglected once analysis is completed. Given the importance of the laboratory side of archaeology work, the state of Maryland is very fortunate to have such an advanced facility to care for our material past.

The MAC lab offers a range public programs including a monthly open house where visitors can go on a free guided tour of the MAC lab facilities. The next one is scheduled for May 20th!! To read more about the MAC Lab and Jefferson Patterson Park visit their website: http://www.jefpat.org/3arch-maclab.htm