The DuSable Museum
Chicago’s DuSable Museum was chartered on this date in 1961. The Museum is named for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, an African Haitian who, in 1779, established the trading post and permanent settlement that would become Chicago.
Teacher and art historian Dr. Margaret Burroughs and other leading Chicago citizens founded it. It was created to preserve and interpret the experiences and achievements of people of African descent. Its mission is to collect, document, preserve, and study the history and culture of Africans and African Americans. Its diverse holdings include more than 15,000 pieces, including paintings, sculptures, print works, historical documents, and memorabilia. The DuSable Museum is one of the few independent institutions in the United States.
The Museum originally opened as the Ebony Museum. Still, it became so popular that it had to relocate to its current location, 740 East 56th Place in Washington Park, in the historic Hyde Park area of Chicago.
In 1993, the $3.5 million completion of the Harold Washington Wing was celebrated. (Harold Washington, a lawyer and politician, became Chicago's first African American mayor, serving from 1983 until he died in 1987.) This edition features additional gallery space, an expanded gift shop, and a 466-seat auditorium.
Special exhibitions, workshops, and lectures for youth and adults highlight work by specific artists, historical events, or collections on loan to the Museum. Theatre, dance, and music performances are offered in its auditorium theater, along with mask-making, dance, drama, percussion, and painting classes.
The African American Desk Reference
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Copyright 1999 The Stonesong Press Inc. and
The New York Public Library, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pub.
ISBN 0-471-23924-0
