When I was in Washington last week I saw the construction of the African American Museum underway on the Mall. It was comforting to see progress being made after years of just plans on a drawing board. The Smithsonian seems to be taking their time on this project and doing everything the right way. The museum is slated to open in 2015, three short years from now.

The other day I mentioned catching the Volck show at the National Portrait Gallery. The Confederate Sketches of Adalbert Volck exhibit is just one of many that the NPG is putting on during the sesquicentennial. Volck is in the same exhibit space as the recently ended Elmer Ellsworth show. Matthew Brady’s Photographs of Civil War Generals is going on through May 2015. What makes the Brady photographs so special and wonderful is that the images are contemporary prints made from the original glass-plate negatives from the Smithsonian collection. The level of detail is something you will not see online or in a book. The Portrait Gallery is a unique place to learn about the Civil War because so much Civil War history took place there. Clara Barton worked in the Patent Office in the 1850s. Whitman served there during the war when the building was a hospital, and after when the Patent Office Building became the home of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Lincoln’s second inaugural ball was held there in March 1865. Guests walked down the hallway shown above to meet the sixteenth president. If you are going to DC anytime soon you owe it to yourself to visit the NPS, especially for The Civil War and american Art show coming later this year. Here is some audio about the building and the war courtesy of the Gallery.

(image/Doug Coldwell)

A year ago right now, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I was on the Boltbus heading to DC. Needless to say, the National Portrait Gallery was on my list of place to see (again). I had never been to the NPG until about two years ago and become more intrigued every time I visit. Sometimes I will go in the morning, break for lunch and get a sandwich across the street, and visit again refreshed in the afternoon. What it fascinating is not just the art–though the NPG collection is one of the finest in the world–but the building, The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and AMerican Art Museum are in the U.S.Patent Office. Clara Barton worked there in the 1850s. During the war the Patent Office was, like so many structures, used as a hospital. It was where Walt Whitman nursed the wounded and dying. When you are in the building you become filled with what I can only describe as a sense of continuity.

Enjoy your weekend.

Regular readers of this blog know that I have been following the creation of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture with keen interest. Today another milestone was reached when the groundbreaking was held in Washington. I am not a believer in ethnic museums because I believe they compartmentalize history and culture in a way I find inappropriate. The African American Museum is the exception to the rule, however. Museum officials have a vision that they seem to be carrying out with great planning and foresight. This is going to be a real addition to the Mall. The museum is also doing an excellent job building its collections. Just the other day a Virginia family donated Nat Turner’s Bible to the new museum.

I have no idea what museum adminsistrators are planning for the opening in 2015, but my hope is that they will tie it in with the ending of the Civil War sesquicentennial. I cannot think of a better “closing ceremony” for our remembrance of the war, though the museum of course will cover the entirety of the African American experience in all its human complexity.

Here are President Obama’s remarks from this morning.