DC Africana Archives Project (DCAAP)
The DC Africana Archives Project (DCAAP) 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 original DCAAP project website.
About DCAAP
The George Washington University's Special Collections Research Center and Africana Studies Program joined with five partner archives throughout Washington, DC to enhance access to previously unavailable research materials that document 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 funded through an award to the GW Libraries from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Hidden Collections grant.
Partner institutions included the District of Columbia Archives, the DC History Center, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Public Library, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, the Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Collections by Institution
Below is a list of the collections that were processed as part of this project by each partner institution. To learn more about accessing these collections please contact the respective institution.
District of Columbia Archives
Visit the DC Archives website for questions and information on using the following collections that were processed as part of the DCAAP grant:
- DC Archives Accession Register
- 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: People’s Archive
Visit the DC Public Library, People’s Archive website for information on using the following collections that were processed as part of the DCAAP grant or search the People’s Archive collections database for these collections:
- 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
Visit Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center website for more information and access to the following collections that were processed as part of the DCAAP grant:
- 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
Visit the website of the Archives Center of the the National Museum of American History or the Smithsonian’s Collections Search Center to locate and inquire about the following collections processed through the DCAAP grant:
- Bobby Tucker Collection
- Duke Ellington Collection
- Duncan P. Schiedt Photograph Collection
- Edward and Gaye Ellington Collection
- Floyd Levin Jazz Reference Collection
- Ruth Ellington Collection
- Scurlock Studio Records
- WANN Radio Station Records
DC History Center
Visit the website for the DC History Center for information and access to the following collections that we processed as part of the DCAAP grant:
- 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
