National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C., a division of the Smithsonian Institution. Devoted to the collection, presentation, and preservation of the culture of African Americans, it was established in 2003 by an act of Congress and opened in 2016. Its collection of some 40,000 items of historical, aesthetic, cultural, and religious significance ranges from a reconstructed slave cabin to Nat Turner's Bible, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, and Chuck Berry's red Cadillac. Its contemporary building on the National Mall was designed by David Adjaye. The aboveground floors are housed in a glass cube whose walls rise in canted tiers and are covered by three inverted, truncated pyramidal bands of bronze-colored lattice.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. Government
