National Museum of African American History & Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution and, with over 40,000 objects in its collection, it is the world’s largest museum dedicated to African-American history and culture. It opened in 2016 and has since strived to educate by providing a space to explore the past through its interactive exhibitions.
EverGreene cleaned and provided condition assessment reports for eight pieces. We completed the work while the museum was open to the public from October to November of 2020. The work consisted of dry cleaning methods to remove thick layers of accumulated dust from the following monuments:
- Yet Do I Marvel, created with acrylic paint on birch wood by Sam Gilliam
- The Training aircraft used by Tuskegee Institute
- Angola Prison Guard Tower, constructed of cast concrete, steel, and corrugated metal
- The Jones-Hall-Sims House, built by Richard Jones
- The Liquidity of Legacy, made from plywood, metal, and rubber by Chakaia Booker
- The Cabin from Point of Pines Plantation in Charleston County, South Carolina
- The railroad passenger car from the “Jim Crow” era
- Swing Low, a welded bronze sculpture created by Richard Hunt.
To complete the project, our team worked from baker’s scaffolds and small electric man lifts, using Nilfisk vacuums with HEPA filters, brushes, and dusters to complete the dry cleaning.
