Category Archives: 50th Anniversary of ACM

A Portrait of Frederick Douglass

2018 marks the bicentennial of abolitionist and civil rights activist Frederick Douglass, whose Cedar Hill Estate is located one mile from our museum’s current location. In his honor, collections researcher Meghan Mullins showcases a portrait that was created by one of our museum’s early employees, artist Larry Erskine Thomas.

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Wee Wee: Our Neighborhood Santa!

It’s Holiday season, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it here at the Anacostia Community Museum than remembering our very own Santa – Wee Wee (Milton Jones) from the 1970s and 80s.  Back in the “old days of the 1970s,” we had our own Santa Claus in the neighborhood of Anacostia.  Santa came to see the children and bring them toys and goodies by way of parade car, in the jitney bus, walking, and even by helicopter.

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Wee Wee (Santa) arrives in helicopter, circa 1971. Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Photo taken by Zora Martin Felton.

Wee Wee was the Santa Claus for the museum for over ten years. He was a member of the Smithsonian Anacostia Neighborhood Museum’s Exhibition Department, and also ran the gift shop at the museum.  The neighborhood had a Christmas parade, featuring our neighborhood Santa.  The streets were lined with people all the way down Martin Luther King Jr., Ave. (then Nichols Avenue) and children and parents were lined up at the Anacostia Museum door to go talk to Santa about their Christmas wishes and receive a toy.

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Here comes Santa in the Parade, December 1971. Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Photo taken by Zora Martin Felton.

Anacostia's Own Santa, circa 1970, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Photo taken by Zora Martin Felton.

Our Santa had helpers too!  YAC (Youth Advisory Committee) members would assist Santa with the toy giveaways and goodies.  As a member of YAC in the later years, I was not present during our Santa years, but I vividly remember working with Wee Wee in  our gift shop. Wee Wee (Milton Jones) was a real pillar in our community and museum.