Historical Society of Washington, D.C.


The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. is an educational foundation and museum dedicated to preserving and displaying the history of Washington, D.C. The society provides lectures, exhibits, classes, community events, and other educational programs as part of its mission. In addition, the society's Kiplinger Research Library houses a collection of books, maps, photographs, and other materials relevant to the history of the city.
Located in the center of Mount Vernon Square in Washington, the society occupies a Beaux-Arts building funded by Andrew Carnegie in 1902, originally used as the District of Columbia Public Library. The former library building is open to the public from Monday through Sunday 10am to 5pm. Visitors are welcome to tour current exhibits and use the society's library.

History

The Columbia Historical Society, as it was called until 1988, was founded in 1894 by a group of 36 men and women, with the following mission: "Its objects shall be the collection, preservation, and diffusion of knowledge respecting the history and topography of the District of Columbia and national history and biography." The organization had as its goal "collecting the scattered and rapidly disappearing records of events and individuals prominent in the history of the city and District." The main role of the early Society was to serve as a forum for members to present historical research, which was then published in the Records of the Columbia Historical Society. It was also a collecting organization, amassing library and manuscript collections.
By 1899 the new organization had 108 members, all but 13 of whom were men, and all but seven of whom were residents of Northwest Washington. Although African Americans constituted one-third of the then-racially segregated city's population, the membership of the Columbia Historical Society was all white. Membership dues went largely to support the publication of the Records. These hard-bound volumes appeared every year until 1922, and thereafter every two or three years.
The growing collections began to present difficulties almost immediately. For more than 50 years, the Society used rented and donated rooms to house its offices and library. Volunteers served as librarians and curators. In the late 1940s, a bill to finance reassembly of Francis Scott Key's home and give it to the Society passed Congress, but President Harry Truman vetoed it for budgetary reasons. A professional appointed in 1947 promulgated a collecting policy and created the first catalog.
In 1954, the District of Columbia Public Library, which had been storing the Society's collections, threatened eviction because of its own space problems. The Society's Board of Trustees appealed to the membership for a home. In 1955, Amelia Keyser Heurich, widow of prominent Washington brewer Christian Heurich, donated the family's four-story mansion) near Dupont Circle, which became the Society's headquarters. The Society took possession of the mansion during the following year when Mrs. Heurich died.
The Society hired its first director in 1959, although the office of the Board of Trustees' president, Ulysses S. Grant III, who served from 1952 to 1968, performed most of the Society's work. For many years the house chairman lived on the third floor and rented offices in the building to other historical and patriotic organizations. Space was available for a library in the mansion, which housed the book, manuscript, photograph and other collections.
In 1975, a real estate transaction produced a significant endowment, which was used to hire the first full-time, professional historian as executive director, Perry Fisher. Fisher used the renewed interest in the nation's past stimulated by the U.S. Bicentennial to increase the Society's services to the general public as well as its membership.
The programs and reach of the Society continued to expand. In 1989 the Society announced its new name: The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. The Society announced the name change with the first issue of Washington History, a semi-annual magazine that continued the publishing traditions of the Records in a new format.

City Museum of Washington, D.C.

In 1998, Monica Scott Beckham, Vice President of the Society's Board of Trustees, went before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations to seek federal funding for a City Museum of Washington, D.C. Congress appropriated $2 million in 1999 "provided that the District of Columbia shall lease the Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square to the Society... for 99 years at $1 per year...". On July 14, 1999, District Mayor Anthony A. Williams announced the creation of the City Museum of Washington, D.C. in the Carnegie Library.
The City Museum opened in May 2003. However, the Museum closed in November 2004 because of a lack of funding and interest.

Recent history

In 2006, the Society and the National Music Center entered into an agreement that permitted the Music Center to occupy a substantial portion of the Carnegie Library for three years.
The Carnegie Library houses the Society's research library, rotating exhibits, and offices. Ninety percent of the Society's historic collections, which include artworks, documents, maps, objects, and over 100,000 photographs, are stored on-site. A permanent exhibition, Window to Washington, now traces the development of the District's built environment and serves as an introduction to the Society's collections. The Society also provides research workshops to students and community groups, including D.C. Public Charter Schools and universities.
In 2017 the Historical Society moved to a temporary location to facilitate renovation of the Carnegie Library Building. The renovated building reopened on May 11, 2019. The Historical Society now shares space in the building with an Apple Store.