Emancipation Day Celebration, 1900

The National Museum of the Pacific War  was on our Austin must-see list for twelve years; we went to the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Center because we had some time to fill. It turned out to be a happy accident.

Because we went to the museum on a whim, we hadn’t spent any time researching it. I expected the museum to be dedicated to the life and achievements of George Washington Carver. I had memories of visiting the Carver birthplace near Diamond, Missouri, as a child and looked forward to filling in some of the holes in his story. And that would have been a lovely way to spend an afternoon.* What we got was better.

The George Washington Carver Museum in Austin is a true cultural center, with a small theater, a dance studio, and a genealogy center dedicated to the heritage of Black families as well as a small museum. There are two core exhibits: one titled “The African American Presence in Nineteenth Century Texas” and a film about the history of Juneteenth and how it has been celebrated in Austin. Both were powerful.

The heart of the exhibit on nineteenth century Texas consisted of a revolving slide show of portraits, formal and informal, of Black families from the region, taken between 1860 and 1900 while modern voices read excerpts from the WPA interviews with formerly enslaved peoples. It was gripping enough that I sat through the slides twice.

The museum also has a very well done exhibit for children, and those with childlike curiosity, featuring Black scientists and inventors.

Our visit to the museum turned out to be an excellent, if unplanned, addition to my personal celebration of Black History month here on the Margins this year.  If you’re in Austin, I strongly recommend it.

*****

Other things we did in the Austin area that I can recommend with an enthusiastic thumbs up:

• • Enjoyed a little bookstore tourism with a visit to Book People. The stock is extensive, the staff is helpful, and the coffee shop chairs are comfortable. (I was thrilled to find The Dragon from Chicago face out on the shelves.)
• • Ate at a food truck serving Nepalese food. (We had planned to eat at more food trucks, but the weather did not cooperate. We shivered through record-cold temperatures and drizzling rain for the first half of our visit. Even wearing all the layers we brought, it was not food truck weather.
  • We didn’t make it to a dance hall, but we still got to experience Austin as a musical center thanks to the Texas Music Museum —a funky little museum kept alive by the passion of a single man, with the help of the local music community.** The museum is dedicated to the diverse traditions of Texas music, told through the stories of Austin musicians, famous and otherwise. Unlike the Museum of the Pacific War, the Bullock Museum of Texas History, or even the George Washington Carver Museum , the Texas Music Museum did not benefit from the latest museum exhibit technology. The exhibits are heavy on data and low on graphics. One of the highlights is the opportunity to hear original recordings played on the historical machines for which they were made. We were fascinated enough to go back to hear a program on the Austin Gospel and Soul music scene. It ended with the diverse audience holding hands and singing “We Shall Overcome,” led by a local music legend—one of the most moving moments of our visit.

I think we’ll be back, Austin.

* Adding the George Washington Carver Monument to the road trip list.
**Some of our favorite museums over the years fit this description