The UnThe Uncertain Future of the Smithsonian’s Smallest Museumcertain Future of the Smithsonian’s Smallest Museum

Camille Borders, The Atlantic

The Anacostia Community Museum was a pioneer in preserving Black history. Will that be enough to save it from President Trump?

In 1969, the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, in Washington, D.C., debuted a new exhibit: “The Rat: Man’s Invited Affliction.” The display—complete with live rats—was different from what people were used to seeing from the venerable Smithsonian Institution. At the time, the main event at the Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) was an exhibit that focused on the fanfare of presidential campaigns and conventions. But Anacostia, which had opened two years prior, was a new kind of museum.

It was well known that the poor neighborhoods of D.C.—the Black neighborhoods of D.C.—had some of the worst rat problems in the country. “The Rat” was a direct response to an ongoing crisis, which made it an unusual choice for a museum. Much of the exhibit was inspired by community voices, including by children who’d told museum staff about rat bites and about vermin so large, they were mistaken for stray cats. Wall text warned against the diseases rats carried, explained different ways to kill them, and advised residents to dispose of trash in tightly covered bins. Going beyond the typically neutral language found in Smithsonian museums, the exhibit charged the Department of Public Health as complicit in creating the scourge.

Anacostia, since renamed the Anacostia Community Museum, was the first federally funded museum focused on Black history, as well as the first federally funded community museum; it is still the only Smithsonian to archive and document daily life in the nation’s capital. “The Rat” set the tone for how the smallest Smithsonian would exist in the shadow of its bigger siblings. Its exhibits and projects have emphasized the history of the community itself. For longtime Anacostia residents, the building has also become a sanctuary. The museum is home to a community garden and a library, and hosts yoga classes and youth programming. During the early years of the coronavirus pandemic, the museum kept a fridge stocked with meals, maintained by a local nonprofit.

But the museum has also struggled to stay alive, and to keep its independent identity. The ACM has always had to fight for funding, space, and the attention of decision makers in the city and federal governments. 

Learn how the museum is more vulnerable than ever due to funding cuts.

You can visit ABHM in Milwaukee to see another unique Black history museum.

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