The National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center opened to the public in April 1988 and is celebrating its 30th anniversary. The museum is the permanent home of one of the nation’s largest collections of Afro-American materials, with over 9,000 artifacts and artwork, 350 manuscript collections, and thousands of photographs. Items in our collection include Alex Haley’s typewriter and his final draft of Roots, a buffalo hide coat worn by a Buffalo Soldier, Gregory Hines’s tap shoes, and artifacts representing the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, and a vast collection of Black dolls, including the recently donated Lillian Bartok Collection.
The collections cover many aspects of history and culture. The collections include African American art, historical documents of Black organizations, inventions, childhood memorabilia, sports, military history, Civil Rights, Ohio. The collections reflect the rich history of Wilberforce, and the greater Miami Valley Ohio community, which includes many Underground Railroad sites. The NAAMCC collections range from the late 1700s to the 21st century, and are of local, regional, national, and international significance. The archival collections comprise approximately 660 linear feet and complement the artifact collections, including sculptures, textiles, weapons, and other large three-dimensional objects.
Materials from the collections are essential components of the institution’s in-house exhibition schedule. NAAMCC collections and archival items have been loaned to numerous national and international traveling exhibitions, educational programs, and academic publications. Among the most notable archival collections are documents associated with the enslavement and manumission of Ohioans of African descent, African American military history, family records, civil rights materials, posters, and other ephemera.
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