Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum (click on photo for larger image)

Saturday was the Arts Alive Free Museum day in St. Petersburg, and my wife and I decided to take advantage of the event to see at least one museum that we had not visited before.  What a breath of fresh air!  We visited the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum, located at 2240 Ninth Avenue South. 

This new home for the museum opened in April of 2006 in a 4,500 square foot building that used to be the management office for the Jordan Park housing complex.  The building itself is pretty enough from outside, but the real exterior beauty is in the gardens in the rear, which are used for a variety of events, including a ’Legacy Garden Music Series’.

The museum building’s interior includes exhibit space, classrooms, storage for museum collections, meeting rooms, and a reception area.  When the museum opened in this renovated building, there was a contest held to help come up with a great name for the museum.  And the winning entry was chosen to honor Dr. Carter G. Woodson, an African American who lived from 1875 to 1950 and who is known as the Father of Black history.    Dr. Woodson, only the second African American to have received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, founded an organization called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now known as The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

My Wife With Our President (click on photo for larger image)

The current exhibit at the museum, a very timely one, is a photographic exhibit entitled “Obama: A Perspective in Photographs”.  The exhibit is made up of more than fifty top quality photos of President Obama taken over the past year or so by various news photographers and by his personal photographer.  There’s a great deal of variety in the perspectives of the photos, from the very serious to the very playful.  They are truly a delight to look at.  And, for anyone interested, every one of the photographs is going to be auctioned off after the exhibit closes down on November 20th!

For much more detail about the museum and about past exhibits and events, you can visit their web site.  The site also provides the operating hours, membership information, and more.

While I was conversing with one of the staff members at the museum, she said that they feel as though they are a ‘hidden gem’ of St. Petersburg, tucked away and not yet well-known throughout the city.  I hope that my post does just a little to change that, because this museum is worth learning about and visiting!

Exhibition Room (click on picture for larger image)