For the entire month of October the National Musuem of African American History + Culture (NMAAHC) will be headquartered at Fisk University’s John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, working with great community partners, developing engaging programming, and digitizing materials for local institutions, organizations, and community members.
We had a chance to go inside the Digitization Truck that made its home on Fisk University’s campus. It was such a cool experience to see how they were transforming years of home videos and photos into digital form for families in Nashville to cherish for years to come. Nashville residents were able to identify and preserve items of historical and cultural significance that were tucked away in attics, closets, to basements of their homes.
This initiative is part of NMAAHC Community Curation Program under The Center for Digitization and Curation of African American History. An annual program where a key city is selected each year, the Museum created this center to expand access to African American history and cultivate broad interest in America’s Black past, genealogy, and culture. Doretha K. Williams, Center Director, was on-site to lead us through how preserving memories is completed in the digitization truck, along with how they work with the Fisk Library Special Collections to preserve some of their history while they were here.
It was such a beautiful treat to have Nashville selected as the city carries so much rich history. To learn more about the Community Curation Program, you can visit their website and see which city they will be in next.
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