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Construction began in 2012 and the museum completed in 2016. The NMAAHC is the world's largest museum dedicated to African-American history and culture. [5] In 2022 it welcomed 1,092,552 visitors, and was the second-most visited Smithsonian Museum and eighth-most visited museum in the United States.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is open daily to the public. To help you prepare for your visit, we have provided answers below to the most frequently asked questions about our museum.
To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
- The Difficult Push to Create This Museum Began in The 1800s
- NMAAHC Is The Largest African American Museum
- It Is Most Popular Amongst The Smithsonian Museums
- Lonnie G. Bunch III Is The Founding Director
- The Museum’s Bronze-colored Wrapper Is called The ‘Corona’
- The Theater in The Museum Is Named After Oprah Winfrey
The idea to create a museum that honored African-American history started from a desire to create a museum that honored Black Civil War veterans. After different trials of honoring African Americans with a national museum festered, the strongest push came in the 1980s. In 1988, Mickey Leland who was a Representative in the United States House of Re...
The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to exploring, documenting and showcasing the African American story and its impact on American and world history. It is located on the National Mall, adjacent to the Washington Monument with 10 floors o...
When it opened in September 2016, the museum topped the 1 million mark in visitors in just over four months, breaking all records for any of the museums in the Smithsonian system. The museum’s “dwell time,” the length of time a visitor stays in a museum, is unparalleled—averaging six hours or more on weekends, compared to 75 minutes to two hours fo...
Lonnie G. Bunch III is an American educator and historian who as the 14thSecretary of the Smithsonian Institution was the first African American and first historian to serve as head of the institution. He has spent most of his career as a history museum curator and administrator. He is the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of A...
During the design phase the most frequently asked question was, would the building look African American? The signature exterior feature—the metal screens enclosing the museum—is called the “Corona.” Each customized, bronze-colored, cast-aluminum panel (3,600 in all) reflects the design of ironwork by enslaved craftsmen in both Charleston and New O...
The Oprah Winfrey Theater at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is located below ground, opening directly into Concourse C of the History Galleries. The main theatre entrance is off the main lobby, down a great circular steel staircase. The 355-seat theatre was designed to support a broad range of uses including ev...
Between 1868 and 1991, there were about 150 African American museums established in 37 states. [2] Since its opening in 2016, the largest African American museum in the United States is the Smithsonian Institution 's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
NameCityStateFounded1995New York City (Manhattan)198419992002The top 36 must-see items at the African American museum. When the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture was established in 2003, it had no collection. Since then,...
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