African American Museum

Description:

• Built on land that once belonged to a historic black community, this 30-year-old museum pays tribute to African Americans -- with a special focus on local history. The AAMP is easy to get to, but isn't easy to notice. It stands a few blocks northwest of the Liberty Bell, in an unobvious modern building evocative of African mud housing. As you ascend the museum's five split levels, you follow a path leading from African-American continental roots and through a history of Africans living in the U.S., eventually becoming Americans.

  Within the museum's four galleries are more than 500,000 images and documents. Utilitarian and domestic objects, fine and folk art, furnishings and costumes, and photographs and negatives are among the explorable exhibits. The second level of the gallery is a must-visit documentation of captivity and slavery. The upper three levels focus on black history and culture after emancipation. Black cowboys, inventors, athletes, spokespeople, and businesspeople are all presented, along with the history of the civil rights movement, up to the modern day.

• © Frommer's 2013