National Museum of African American History and Culture

About

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established as a Smithsonian institution when President George W. Bush signed the founding legislation in December 2003. In 2009, an international design competition selected a team of Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates, and Davis Brody Bond, with David Adjaye as lead designer, and the museum opened on September 24, 2016, with President Barack Obama in attendance. The building rises five stories above ground and extends five below, its bronze-colored three-tiered scrim inspired by the form of a Yoruba corona, or Oba's crown. The lattice pattern covering the screen draws on wrought-iron work made by Black craftsmen in Charleston and New Orleans. The museum stands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., just west of the National Museum of American History. The collection holds more than 40,000 objects, of which roughly 3,500 are on display at any time. Notable items include Emmett Till's glass-topped casket, the dress Rosa Parks wore during the Montgomery bus boycott, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, and artifacts related to the Tuskegee Airmen.