Masks are required inside all GW and library buildings. Food is not allowed. Only one person may be inside a study room or use a table at a time. Library access is not available for any alumni or visitors.

DC Africana Archives Project (DCAAP)

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. 

Council on Library and Information Resources logo

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

DC Public Library

Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University

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.

Special Collections, George Washington University