African American Museum
| Type | History and culture museum |
|---|---|
| Phone | (215) 574-0380 |
| Website | Official site |
| Established | 1976 |
| Collection | 750,000+ objects |
| Admission | $14 (adults), $10 (students/seniors) |
| Hours | Wednesday–Saturday 10:00 am–5:00 pm; Sunday 12:00 pm–5:00 pm |
| Transit | 5th Street Station (MFL), SEPTA buses |
The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) is a museum dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the material culture of African Americans. Located at 7th and Arch Streets in Old City, adjacent to Independence Mall, AAMP was the first institution of its kind built by a major American city, opening on July 4, 1976, as part of the nation's Bicentennial celebration.[1] The museum holds more than 750,000 objects documenting the African American experience, with particular emphasis on the Philadelphia region's history stretching back to the colonial era.
History
Founding
Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo supported creating an African American museum as part of the nation's 1976 Bicentennial celebration, though the institution's creation also reflected sustained advocacy by Philadelphia's African American community, which sought a permanent civic home for its history and culture. The museum opened on July 4, 1976, as the first museum dedicated to African American history and culture to be built and funded by a major American city. The building at 701 Arch Street was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham and was purpose-built for the museum's mission, distinguishing it from institutions that later adapted existing structures.[1]
The timing was significant. Philadelphia has one of the oldest and largest African American communities in the United States, with a continuous presence stretching back to the colonial era. The city's free Black population in the antebellum period was among the largest in North America, and its residents played central roles in the abolitionist movement, the Underground Railroad, and the founding of major African American religious and civic institutions. Establishing a museum in Philadelphia to document that legacy carried both regional and national significance.
Mission
AAMP's mission is to tell the story of African Americans from across the African diaspora through art, history, and culture, with particular emphasis on the Philadelphia region's African American heritage. The museum serves as a research and educational institution as well as an exhibition space, engaging community members, students, and scholars through its programs and collections. Its holdings encompass art, artifacts, photographs, documents, and oral histories that together constitute one of the more substantial archives of African American life in the northeastern United States.
Building and Architecture
The museum's home at 701 Arch Street was designed by Geddes Brecher Qualls Cunningham, a prominent Philadelphia architectural firm, and completed in time for the 1976 Bicentennial opening. The building was conceived as a purpose-built cultural institution rather than an adaptive reuse project, reflecting the civic seriousness with which the city approached the undertaking. Its location near Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell Center, and the National Constitution Center places it within one of the most historically significant corridors in American public history, providing visitors with immediate geographic context for the African American stories the museum documents.
Collection
AAMP holds more than 750,000 objects across its collections, making it one of the largest repositories of African American material culture in the country. The collections are particularly strong in Philadelphia and regional African American history, African American visual art, civil rights materials, African diaspora artifacts, historical photographs, personal documents, and oral history recordings. These holdings support both the museum's permanent exhibitions and its ongoing scholarly and community research programs.[1]
The oral history collection is among the museum's most distinctive assets, preserving firsthand accounts of community life, migration, labor, and civic engagement that would otherwise be lost. Photographic holdings document Philadelphia's African American neighborhoods, institutions, and public figures across more than a century, providing visual documentation that complements the museum's archival materials.
Exhibitions
Audacious Freedom
The core permanent exhibition, Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia 1776–1876, explores the first century of African American life in Philadelphia following the nation's founding. The exhibition examines the development of the free Black community in Philadelphia during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a period when the city was home to one of the largest free African American populations in North America. Themes include the growth of the abolition movement, the operation of the Underground Railroad through Philadelphia, the founding of religious and civic institutions, African American entrepreneurship and education, and the community's experience of the Civil War and emancipation. The exhibition draws heavily on AAMP's own collections and situates Philadelphia's story within the broader national narrative of African American history.[1]
Changing Exhibitions
In addition to its permanent gallery, AAMP regularly presents changing exhibitions featuring contemporary African American artists, thematic historical subjects, community-focused documentary projects, and traveling exhibitions organized by partner institutions. These rotating programs allow the museum to address current events, highlight emerging artists and scholars, and engage with aspects of African American history and culture that fall outside the scope of the permanent collection.
Philadelphia's African American History
AAMP contextualizes Philadelphia's exceptional significance in African American history, a story that spans more than three centuries. Richard Allen, born enslaved in Philadelphia, purchased his freedom and went on to found Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794, establishing the first independent African American denomination in the United States. Absalom Jones, a contemporary of Allen's, became the first African American ordained as an Episcopal priest and co-founded the Free African Society, one of the earliest African American mutual aid organizations in the country. Both men were central figures in Philadelphia's free Black community during the early republic.
Octavius V. Catto emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as one of Philadelphia's most important civil rights leaders, organizing African American men to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War and campaigning for the enforcement of Pennsylvania's desegregation laws on the city's streetcar system. He was assassinated in 1871 on Election Day, becoming a martyr for Black voting rights. Marian Anderson, the celebrated contralto and Philadelphia native, broke barriers in classical music and became an international symbol of dignity in the face of racial discrimination, most famously when she performed at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being barred from Constitution Hall.
Philadelphia also served as a major hub of the Underground Railroad, with the Vigilance Committee led by William Still — himself a Philadelphia native — assisting hundreds of freedom seekers in the mid-nineteenth century. Still's meticulous records of those he helped became one of the most important primary sources on the Underground Railroad and are among the documentary treasures associated with Philadelphia's African American heritage. AAMP's collections and exhibitions engage with all of these figures and movements as part of its broader effort to document the depth and continuity of Black life in the city.[1]
Visiting
AAMP is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. General admission is $14 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. The museum is located at 701 Arch Street in Old City, Philadelphia. Visitors typically spend one to two hours exploring the permanent and changing exhibitions, though the collections and programming support longer visits for those with deeper research interests.
The museum is accessible by public transit via the 5th Street Station on SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line, and by SEPTA bus routes 17, 33, 48, and 57. The museum is within walking distance of other major sites on and near Independence Mall, including the Liberty Bell Center, Independence Hall, and the National Constitution Center, making it a natural complement to a full day of visiting Philadelphia's historic district. Parking is available at AutoPark at Independence Mall.
See Also
- Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church
- Richard Allen
- Absalom Jones
- Octavius V. Catto
- Marian Anderson
- William Still
- Old City, Philadelphia
- Underground Railroad