Story Tags

Washingtoniana is Open!

By Appointment at the Newseum Interim Location

Washingtoniana is now open by appointment at a new interim location in the Newseum office building! Contact staff to plan your visit and sign up for the Special Collections email list to receive announcements about interim services, events, and new collections.

Native Gardens

Green Hedges Make Good Neighbors

A Reading List for Arena Stage's Native Gardens

Although DC is the City of Trees, we do not generally look at the plant life around when we tell the stories of our lives and our communities in the District. But gardens and plants often make for the best metaphors and signposts for understanding our relationships to each other and to the city that we inhabit. 

Race Class Politics Cappuccino City cover

Author Talk: Derek Hyra

In recent years, the Shaw/U Street neighborhood has experienced a dramatic transformation.What was once an open-air drug market has been replaced by new residential complexes and businesses. However, not everyone has benefited from the redevelopment in the neighborhood. Long-time residents and small businesses have moved out of the neighborhood or have had to adjust to the arrival of young, relatively wealthy newcomers.  With the changes from gentrification, what does it mean for the future of the Shaw/U Street neighborhood and the District?

Women's eight and coxswain on the water at the boathouse, circa 1920s

Potomac Boat Club Collection Digitized

Historic Georgetown rowing club photographs now online

The Potomac Boat Club Photograph Collection now online documents competitive and social events at the Georgetown rowing club from its 1869 founding through the late-20th century.  The collection, donated to the George Peabody Room Collection at Georgetown Neighborhood Library by the club in 2015, has been was digitized in its entirety.

DC locals Cigarette play on the Woodridge rooftop on July 12, 2017

Summer of Punk Reads!

History in the Making with the DC Punk Archive

After the closure of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library for renovation earlier this year, we wondered how to continue the joy and community built around the DC Punk Archive Basement shows hosted there since October 2014 to promote the DC Punk Archive collection. Why not start with our newest DC Public Library building?

AIA Guide to Architecture DC

District of Construction

You've seen them in photos, books, and movies. Have you wondered about how they came to be built? Washington, D.C. features a variety of architectural designs in homes, public buildings, and monuments. With building as the theme for this year's summer reading, below are a selection of books about building and architecture in the District. 

Washington Blade 1980s cover, December 29, 1989

Welcome to the '80s!

Washington Blade digitized archives 1969-1989 online

We've got the '80s covered -- The Washington Blade newspaper 1969 to 1989 is all now online! Work to digitize all of the nation's oldest still-publishing LGBT newspaper's archives by DC Public Library, Special Collections are ongoing.

Images from Picturing America Series

Coffee + Conversation Summer Sessions

Exploring Visual Thinking Strategies with the Art of "Picturing America"

PLEASE NOTE: all Coffee + Conversation sessions scheduled after July 26 have been canceled.

Queer Capital _ cover

Capital Pride

Books about LGBTQ Life and Experience in Washington, D.C.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month (LGBT Pride Month) is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. The Stonewall riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Although New York City is often associated with the birth of the Gay Rights Movement there is a considerable resonance of LGBT advocacy and history right here in our city.   

Marvin Jones photo

Dunbar High School's Classic Age 1870-1957

Documentary Screening

Local film producer Marvin T. Jones will screen his documentary "Dunbar High School's Classic Age: 1870-1957", telling the story of the first public high school for African-Americans in Washington, D.C.  Named for the poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the school was noted for its outstanding education and the success of its alumni. Famous Dunbar graduates include General Benjamin Davis, Sr., Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Charles Hamilton Houston. After the film, Mr. Jones will lead a discussion about the legacy of Dunbar High School.

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