National African American history museum in Chicago to archive family photos, videos: ‘This is honoring my legacy’

Maceo Thomas, of the Dearborn Park neighborhood, shares various family photos he had digitized Saturday at the DuSable Museum of African American History. | Jake Wittich/Sun-Times

The National Museum of African American History and Culture is in Chicago helping members of the community document their history by digitizing their family stories, photos and videos.

The museum kicked off its Community Curation in Chicago series Saturday at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Place. Community members were invited to stop by the museum to have their personal items archived at pop-up digitization studios.

“This helps broaden the understanding of African American history,” said Doretha Williams, program manager of the the museum’s Robert F. Smith Fund for the Digitization and Curation of African American History. “Instead of having just a national understanding of history like the Black Migration, we may get photos or audio tapes from a family’s elders who migrated from Mississippi to Chicago.”

The fund’s digitization teams will be at the DuSable Museum through Sept. 20 to archive visitors’ photos, documents, flat items, videos and audio. After that, the moving image digitization team will archive video and audio at Evanston Township High School from Sept. 21–22, and the still image digitization team will be archiving photos and other flat documents at Chicago State University from Sept. 24–28.

Doretha Williams, program manager of the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s digitization and community curation team, in the museum’s traveling moving image digitization studio. | Jake Wittich/Sun-Times

Visitors are encouraged to bring a variety of items, such as a great-grandmother’s high school diploma, family reunion videos or an ancestor’s recipe book. Museum staff will then help sort the items by size and order of importance before taking them back to the photography, video or audio stations to be digitized.

Participants will leave with a USB flash drive containing digital copies of their collection and tips on how to care for the original copies. Paperwork will also be available for visitors to donate their digital files to the museum’s online community collection.

“For the people who are donating, there’s a sense of pride to making sure that family history is not only preserved in the family, but also in a national museum,” Williams said.

On Saturday, Deborah Harrington, of South Shore, digitized her family’s collection of photos spanning from the ‘20s through the ‘60s.

“There’s an African saying and it’s ‘Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter,’” Harrington said after sorting through her items, which ranged from a photo of her mother at the historic Club DeLisa in the ‘40s to childhood photos of Harrington outside her family’s Woodlawn restaurant in the ‘60s.

“For black folks, we haven’t been the curators of our stories. Our history is silent or written for us,” Harrington said. “This is honoring my legacy.”

From left, Deborah Harrington sorts through family photos to have digitized by Angela Winand, of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Charles Arnold, an archivist at DuSable Museum of African American History. | Jake Wittich/sun-Times.

Maceo Thomas, of Dearborn Park, digitalized a collection of old family photos featuring his grandmother, parents and sister.

Thomas also brought in photos from the set of the 1992 film, “The Babe,” a biographical drama following baseball legend Babe Ruth. Thomas was an extra in the film’s scene depicting Ruth’s famous home run after he pointed to the center-field bleachers during the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field.

“I thought the set photos would be interesting because they tie into Chicago’s history of Wrigley Field,” Thomas said.

Thomas added that archiving his family’s photos was important so that their history could be available for future generations.

“If you don’t preserve these photos, you’ll lose a large segment of history that might not be told,” Thomas said. “I’m making sure that my family’s story will be easier to share and available for future generations.”

Maceo Thomas shares a photo of him at Wrigley Field on the set of the 1992 film “The Babe,” which tells the story of baseball hero Babe Ruth. | Jake Wittich/Sun-Times

The museum’s digitalization team will also spend more than a year archiving the collections of its Community Curation in Chicago partners, which include the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, DuSable Museum, Shorefront Legacy Center, Chicago Public Library’s Woodson Regional branch and Chicago State University.

With its partners, the museum has also coordinated a month-long series of African American history programs throughout the city.

People can find more information or sign up to have their personal items digitized by visiting the museum’s website. Walk-in appointments are also accepted.