Metro History News; Spring 1997 Volume 4, Number 3
Washington DC: The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., 1997. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Single sheet, printed on both sides. The format is approximately 21.75 inches by 17 inches. Folded in half and then into four panels. Mailing label present. Illustrations. Map. This issue has articles on Samantha at The Heurich House Museum, an exhibition on Black and White and Red, White and Blue, "Temples of Amusement, Temples of Art": A Century of Washington Theaters, An Inaugural Tradition Revives, a Calendar of events and exhibitions and News Notes. Barbara Franco has extensive experience in public history as a museum director, curator, and exhibition developer, including assistant director for Museums at the Minnesota Historical Society, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and founding director of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum. She has written numerous articles on museum practice and historical interpretation, and currently works as an independent scholar and museum consultant. She serves as president of the Advent Historical Society, preserving and interpreting a historic 1849 Millerite chapel in Centre County, Pennsylvania.
Her broad interest in the social, cultural, and intellectual history of the 19 th century has included the decorative and fine arts, communal societies, fraternal organizations, the role of religion, and the Civil War era. In addition to numerous exhibition catalogs and articles, she co-edited Ideas and Images: Developing Interpretive History Exhibits (1992) and Interpreting Religion at Museums and Historic Sites (2018). She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies. The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., also called the DC History Center, is an educational foundation dedicated to preserving and displaying the history of Washington, D.C. The society provides lectures, exhibits, classes, and community events. It runs a museum, library, and publishes the journal Washington History. It had been named The Columbia Historical Society from its founding in 1894 until 1988. The society's home is the Carnegie Library of Washington D.C., a Beaux-Arts building in the center of Mount Vernon Square in Washington. It was built in 1902 to be District of Columbia Public Library, one of the many Carnegie libraries. Visitors can tour the exhibits and use the society's Kiplinger Research Library, which has books, maps, photographs, and other materials relevant to the history of the city. The society publishes a peer-reviewed academic journal Washington History, generally twice a year. The journal's predecessor was the original Records of the Columbia Historical Society, which was published from 1894 to 1989. In the society's early years, membership dues went largely to support the publication of the Records. These hard-bound volumes appeared every year until 1922, and thereafter every two or three years. The Columbia Historical Society was founded in 1894 by a group of 36 men and women, with the following mission: "Its objects shall be the collection, preservation, and diffusion of knowledge respecting the history and topography of the District of Columbia and national history and biography." The organization had as its goal "collecting the scattered and rapidly disappearing records of events and individuals prominent in the history of the city and District." The main role of the early society was to serve as a forum for members to present historical research, which was then published in the Records of the Columbia Historical Society. The organization also amassed library and manuscript collections. By 1899, the new organization had 108 members. A professional appointed in 1947 promulgated a collecting policy and created the first catalog. In 1954, the District of Columbia Public Library, which had been storing the society's collections, threatened to evict them because of its own space problems. The society's board of trustees appealed to the membership for a home. In 1955, Amelia Keyser Heurich, widow of prominent Washington brewer Christian Heurich, donated the family's four-story mansion near Dupont Circle, which became the society's headquarters. The society hired its first director in 1959, although the office of the board of trustees' president, Ulysses S. Grant III, who served from 1952 to 1968, still performed most of the society's work. In 1989, the society was renamed the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. and relaunched its magazine Records as the journal Washington History. In 1998, Monica Scott Beckham, vice president of the society's board of trustees, went before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations to seek federal funding for a City Museum of Washington, D.C. Congress appropriated $2 million in 1999 "provided that the District of Columbia shall lease the Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square to the Society ... for 99 years at $1 per year". On July 14, 1999, District Mayor Anthony A. Williams announced the creation of the City Museum of Washington, D.C. in the Carnegie Library. The Carnegie Library houses the society's research library, rotating exhibits, and offices. Ninety percent of the society's historic collections, which include artworks, documents, maps, objects, and over 100,000 photographs, are stored on-site. A permanent exhibition, Window to Washington, now traces the development of the District's built environment and serves as an introduction to the society's collections. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Washington, District of Columbia, Theaters, Heurich House, Museum, Demographic, Patriotism, Inauguration, Traditions, Local History, Exhibitions
[Book #89340]
Price: $25.00