Thank you for your interest in the DC Africana Archives Project (DCAAP), which concluded in 2017. This webpage is an abridged version of the original project website. For more details about the project, please see archived versions of the DCAAP project website.
This project was funded through the award of a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Hidden Collections grant.
About DCAAP
During this project, The George Washington University's Special Collections Research Center and Africana Studies Program joined with five partner archives throughout the city to enhance access to previously unavailable research materials documenting the history of the African diaspora in DC, the civil rights movements, the struggle for Home Rule, the rise of Black-owned businesses, the development of Howard University, slavery in the nation’s capital, jazz music in D.C., and the literary arts. This project was made possible by a grant to the GW Libraries from the Council on Library and Information Resources.
Partner institutions included the District of Columbia Archives, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Public Library, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, and the Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collection Guides, by Institution
The following collection guides were produced during the course of this grant. The links below are to the versions hosted at GW. The materials themselves, however, can be accessed via each home institution.
District of Columbia Archives
Included within the DC Archives Accession Register are these collections which may be of interest to DCAAP researchers:
Residents of D.C. Marriage Records, 1870-1966
Department of Housing and Community Development Shaw & H St. Building Survey Forms Collection, 1968-1972
The Department of Housing and Community Development 14th Street & Downtown Survey Forms Collection, 1968-1974
D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Speeches and Papers
Consumer and Regulatory Affairs Articles of Incorporation—Perpetual Businesses Ledgers, 1870-1957
Articles of Incorporation Dissolved/Delinquent Businesses
Department of Housing and Community Development Housing Conditions in Northeast D.C., 1957-1968
Mayor’s Photographs and Slides Collection, 1959-1990
D.C. Mayor Marion Barry Operation and Office Files, 1966-1990
District of Columbia Citywide Agency News Releases, 1967-1978
The Ellison Commission Records, 1967-1973
Office of Preparedness: Demonstrations, Civil Disturbances, 1965 & 1968
Office of the Mayor: Walter E. Washington, Subject Files
D.C. Jail and Washington Asylum Prisoner Ledgers, 1848-1862
DC Archivist Special Government Reports and Studies
DC Jail Historical, Administrative & Research Files, 1940-1990
DC Jail Prisoner Logs, 1871-1926
DC Jail Prisoner Infirmary Logs—1874-1930
DC Jail Prisoner Commitment Documents and Court Orders, 1874-1928
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission Files, 1986-1999
Reports of the Board of Education
DC Statehood Constitutional Convention Reports, 1982-1983
Office of Boards and Commissions Mayor’s Appointments, 1968-1981
- Disinterment Records
- Records of Councilman and Former Mayor Marion Barry, Jr.
- Councilman and Former Mayor Marion Barry Photograph Collection
- Military Discharge Certificates and Service Records
- Records of Coffins & Burial at Potter's Field
- Walter E. Washington Photographs
DC Public Library
- Arrington Dixon Papers
- Bethea-Welch VFW Post 7248 Ladies Auxiliary Collection
- C. Bernard Ruffin Papers
- Charlene Drew Jarvis Papers
- Charlotte Wesley Holloman Papers
- Craig Rosen and the Static Disruptors D.C. Groove Collection
- Dorothy Provine Free Black Research Collection
- Frederick Douglass Book Research Collection
- Hilda Mason Board of Education Records
- Hilda Mason City Council Records
- Hilda Mason Statehood Party Records
- Josephine Butler Papers
- Lawrence Guyot, Jr. Papers
- Leroy "Damu" Smith Papers
- Lucy Barber Papers
- Margaret Cooper Papers
- Marya Annette McQuirter Papers
- National Tots and Teens, Inc., DC Chapter Records
- Neighbors, Inc. Collection
- Paul Philips Cooke Papers
- Savoy Family Genealogical Collection
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
- Amiri Baraka Papers
- Arthur P. Davis Papers
- Calvin Raullerson Papers
- Cecille Hoover Edwards Papers
- Charles V. Hendley Papers
- Doris McGinty Papers
- Elias Blake, Jr. Papers
- Elsie Brown Smith Papers
- Ethel James Williams Papers
- George Murphy, Jr. Papers
- H. Minton Francis Papers
- H. Naylor Fitzhugh Papers
- House Committee on Home Rule
- James Madison Nabrit Papers
- Jeanne Spurlock Papers
- John Lovell Papers
- Dr. Lawrence Jones Papers
- Mark Hanna Watkins Papers
- Mary Burke Washington Papers
- Nethula Journal Collection
- Oscar Brown, Jr. Papers
- Patricia Roberts Harris Papers
- Sharon Pratt Kelly Papers
- Sixth Pan African Congress Records
- TransAfrica Records
- Walter E. Washington Papers
- Wilhemina Rolark Papers
- William Bryant Papers
- Youth Pride, Inc. Records
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Duncan P. Schiedt Photograph Collection
Richard Becker Collection of Alex Bradford Gospel Music Materials
Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
- Archaeological Survey of the Southwest Quadrant of D.C. Oral History
- Capital Press Club Records
- D.C. Blacks in the Arts Historic Preservation Oral History
- D.C. Statehood Party Records
- Madeline Lindsey Green Family Research Papers
- Methodist Cemetery of Tenleytown Interment Information
- Neighborhood Survey Project 1987-1989 Oral History
- Paul Phillips Cooke Papers
- Reverend Hampton Tecumseh Gaskins Papers
- St. Elizabeths Burial Ledger
- Sadgwar Family Papers
- Westminister Neighborhood Association Records