Support Historic Alexandria
Starting in April 2024 through September 2024, the City of Alexandria will be celebrating its 275th Birthday! We will present new exhibits, informative programming, opportunities for reflection, and story sharing. Consider making your birthday gift to support this banner year for the City.
Year in Review
There are many opportunities for us to celebrate and reflect at Historic Alexandria- the opening and closing of exhibits, the beginning and ending of the calendar year, when schools reopen and programming ramps up in the fall, and our fiscal year which runs July 1 through June 30. This was the first fiscal year since the beginning of COVID that we ran a full year without mandatory closures and able to make masks voluntary. While we saw our museum operations resuming, we also saw a continued dip in visitations and school programming that we know will begin to see the full rebound in FY 2024 and beyond.
Coming in 2024
In 2024, we will mark the 275th birthday of the City of Alexandria. Festivities will be starting in April with events, commemorations, and new exhibits. We will be looking at the City as a whole, collecting the histories of Alexandria’s diverse neighborhoods and sharing the stories of our residents. You will have an opportunity to experience these oral histories, as well as record your own, at our special 275th anniversary exhibit at the Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum.
I am also excited to announce that we will debut the works of African American public relations pioneer Moss Kendrix, entitled What the Public Thinks Counts! Reframing the Black Image. His work, starting in the late 1940’s, changed how the media depicted African Americans, featuring them as individuals and not racist caricatures. This exhibit will be open at the Black History Museum in Summer 2024.
In addition, a pop-up exhibit, called The Buried Ships of Robinson Landing, will be launched at the Robinson Landing gallery space and feature scale models of the three ships excavated there in 2018. We are also bringing back a few of our pre-pandemic favorite events, including our popular Madeira Tasting, and a series of lectures highlighting the latest scholarship on 1315 Duke Street.
Embrace the diversity of our community, both past and present
Three public engagement sessions and three staff workshops were held to gather ideas and input on the future for the Freedom House Museum at 1315 Duke Street. These Master Plan sessions were led by SmithGroup and will help serve as a road map for future exhibits, restoration, visitor services, and space use at the site. The Master Plan is scheduled to conclude in Fall 2023 with a public presentation. The Master Plan was funded through private donations.
Just before the start of FY2023, Historic Alexandria hired an Oral History Manager, Francesco De Salvatore. In just one year, he has more than doubled the oral history collection, made important community contacts, and hosted our first ever oral history walking tour. Plus we raised over $12,000 for Oral History through Spring2ACTion. The Oral History program has focuses on telling the stories of all members of the community. The program is purposeful in ensuring many voices are heard, representing the racial and ethnic diversity of Alexandria but also the different communities in the city.
Instill a sense of place
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Instill a sense of place As you can see, visits were steadily increasing year after year, with a slight drop in FY 2020 and FY 2021 because of the pandemic. Since we reopened, our visits are starting to rise again. However, due to closing for routine maintenance, we have not had a full year of all 8 museums being open to reflect what our museums' guest counts will be. The data is showing that people are wanting to come to museums again and we fully expect continual growth in FY2024. We have seen increased engagement online and at programs and look forward to welcoming returning and new visitors in the future. Additionally, we are looking forward to welcoming back student groups over the next year which will continue to increase our numbers. |
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We could not do the incredible work we do at Historic Alexandria without our amazing volunteers. Each museum has different needs for volunteers, which includes giving tours, transcribing ledgers, watering flowers, serving on boards, fundraising, hosting events, and so much more. The work they do saves us on average $100,000 a year in staff costs. Their dedication, knowledge, and passion are what transform our visitor experience. |
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We were excited to bring back our Junior Docent program, made possible by the sponsorship of MARS Chocolate. Marking its 14th year, the Junior Docent program is always a highlight of the year, with young historians telling the stories to visitors at Gadsby’s Tavern Museum. Junior Docents range in ages from 9-18 and spend a week preparing before the first presentation of chocolate making, or clothing, or the different artifacts around the museum. |
Use history to spark curiosity and reflection
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The Alexandria Community Remembrance Project (ACRP) held remembrances to honor the lost lives of lynching victims Joseph McCoy (April 23, 1897) and Benjamin Thomas (August 8, 1899).ACRP also led a community pilgrimage to Montgomery, AL, conducted descendant research and outreach, collected soil where participants had an opportunity to touch earth excavated from sites known intimately by McCoy and Thomas, and hosted an essay contest. |
| Alexandria Hospital: Women Mobilize the Community, opened in October 2022 with extensive use of oral histories at the Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum. Supported by The Twig and Board of Lady Managers with Alexandria Inova Hospital, this is Historic Alexandria’s first bilingual exhibition. |
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The Black Lives Remembered collecting initiative during the pandemic and protests occurring after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd culminated in a gallery exhibition with a mix of objects and digital images. Additional digital photos can be seen as part of the online exhibit. This exhibit opened in February 2023. |
| A Community Digs its Past: The Lee Street Site at the Alexandria Archaeology Museum debuted in June 2023. This exhibition can be viewed from both the interior and exterior of the museum space. Funded in part by the Historic Alexandria Foundation, the updated exhibit features rich community stories and history. |
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The historic 1851 Rodgers Pumper at the Friendship Firehouse Museum left for conservation as part of a community farewell event in August 2022. Fully funded through private donations, the conserved vehicle was returned to the museum as part of the August 2023 Friendship Firehouse Festival. |
Uphold and Advance Historic Alexandria as a resource
In December 2022, after months of preparation, peer reviewers for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) spent a few days with Historic Alexandria conducting a comprehensive review of our organization’s governance, collections, programs, and services to ensure that Historic Alexandria met the highest standards of professional practices and provide the best services for our community. We received our reaccreditation status, showing our commitment to collections management, education, and the people we serve.
In April, Historic Alexandria announced a new structure that better reflects the one city one museum vision of the future of our museum system. We moved away from site specific staffing to an expertise structure. This allows for us to have a comprehensive educational program, as well as a streamlined process for maintenance, collection acquisition, and volunteer management.
- Grants Received
- Historic Alexandria Foundation grant to fund the Murray-Dick-Fawcett House Historic Structures Report
- IMLS grant to digitize three archival collections at the Alexandria Black History Museum, extended through June 2024
- Save American’s Treasures grant to support the exterior repointing of Freedom House, through September 2025
- Virginia Humanities grant for Oral Histories at Douglass Cemetery, through April 2024
275th Birthday
Starting in April 2024 through September 2024, the City of Alexandria will be celebrating its 275th Birthday! We will present new exhibits, informative programming, opportunities for reflection, and story sharing. Consider making your birthday gift to support this banner year for the City.