The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum is a wax museum in Baltimore, Maryland featuring prominent African-American historical figures. It was established in 1983, in a downtown storefront on Saratoga Street.
The museum is currently located on 1601 East North Avenue in a renovated firehouse, a Victorian Mansion, and two former apartment dwellings that provide nearly 30,000 square feet (3,000Â m2) of exhibit and office space. The exhibits feature over 100 wax figures and scenes, a full model slave ship exhibit which portrays the 400-year history of the Atlantic Slave Trade, an exhibit on the role of youth in making history, and a Maryland room highlighting the contributions to African American history by notable Marylanders.
History
The National Great Blacks in Wax museum is Baltimore's first wax museum and the first wax museum of African American history in the nation. The museum was started as a grassroots operation by Dr. Elmer Martin and his wife Dr. Joanna Martin.
The idea of Blacks in Wax started with a few wax figures that were taken around to various schools, community centers, and malls. It received national recognition in 1983 when the founding members were allotted grants, loans, and endowments to open a permanent exhibition. In 1988, Blacks in Wax received its permanent home on the 1600 block of North Avenue in the neighborhood of Oliver.
The museum was originally sponsored exclusively by Dr. Elmer Martin, his wife Dr. Joanna Martin, and donations from the community. In the early days, Dr. Elmer Martin was forced to ask his wife to sell her wedding ring to keep the moving exhibit going. However, in 1983 the project was awarded several loans and grants in order to obtain a permanent home, and now survives on admissions, loans, grants, and endowments.
The site was originally home to a firehouse that was converted into a showhouse. In 2004, The Blacks in Wax Museum was recognized by the U.S. Congress and became The National Blacks in Wax Museum.
People featured in museum
The following people have been depicted at the museum:
- Akhenaton
- Bishop Richard Allen
- Willard Allen
- Askia the Great
- Benjamin Banneker
- Ota Benga
- Bilal
- Rev. Andrew Bryan
- Henry "Box" Brown
- John Brown
- Cripple Caesar
- Bessie Coleman
- General Benjamin O. Davis
- W. E. B. Du Bois
- Harlow Fullwood
- Thomas Garrett
- Jocko Graves
- Prince Hall
- Hannibal
- General Daniel "Chappie" James
- Toussaint L'Ouverture
- Mother Mary E. Lange
- Reginald F. Lewis
- Makeda, Queen of Sheba
- Queen Anne Njinga
- Osborne Payne
- General Colin Powell
- Howard Rollins
- Robert Samuel
- Emmett Till
- Harriet Tubman
- Nat Turner
- Madam C.J. Walker
- Carter G. Woodson
- Malcolm X
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Marcus Garvey
- Daymond John
- Barack Obama
- Imhotep
- Elijah Muhammad
- Noble Drew Ali
- Bob Marley
- Frederick Douglass
- Rosa Parks
- George Washington Carver
- Ida B. Wells
- Nelson Mandela
- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
- Steve Biko
- Sojourner Truth
See also
- List of museums focused on African Americans
Sources
- National Blacks in Wax Museum. http://www.greatblacksinwax.org. Accessed November 30, 2010.
- "National Great Blacks In Wax Museum." http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11009. Accessed November 30, 2010.
- Wood, M. (2009), 'Slavery, Memory, and Museum Display in Baltimore: The Great Blacks in Wax and the Reginald F. Lewis. Curator:' The Museum Journal, 52: 147â€"167. 2001.
External links
- National Great Blacks In Wax Museum - Official site
- Great Blacks in Wax Museum on Google Street View
