Civil War Museum Analysis

Seeing the African-American Civil War Museum (AACWM) for the first time may be quite shocking for many, but not for the reasons one may think. African-American engagement in the Civil War is not addressed as much as it should be. Nearly 40,000 black men lost their lives fighting with the union yet, their participation is often glossed over. The museum is a good representation of this.
If a person is walking down Vermont Ave they may not realize there is a museum there. This is due to the fact that the museum is nestled away between a school and a house. The arch which marks its entrance is dilapidated and old. No one would know the museum existed based on its location. It is located near the historic U street but its placement is very off-putting. …show more content…
As I previously mention, this museum does not. But this may be forgiven if the information was presented in an interesting manner; unfortunately it is not. On one panel, which typically discusses a section of the war or the history leading to African-American involvement, there could be several paragraphs. Some of the panels had short essays on them. This is not an engaging presentation of any sort. Not many people go to museums to read essays. By presenting the information this way, the museum deprives its visitors from having an experience that cannot be felt at home. It is simple to find information of the topic but a museum should be more memorable. The information is also presented to simplistically. There can be an elevation in explanation which gives depth to the information presented. As for the media clips, many of them did not work properly and the ones that did were not very effective in portraying the museums message. One thing I also noticed is that there was little mention of African American women in the museum. Black women were spies, cooks, nurses, and had many other roles in the war. There was a tiny mention of them on a back wall but not much