DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Giving in America:
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SIAHGI_210524_007.JPG: Massasoit
As the leader of the Wampanoag in the 1620s, Massasoit made a strategic, alliance-building gift of freshly hunted deer to European settlers. This gift and the meal that followed later underpinned the mythology of the First Thanksgiving.
SIAHGI_210524_009.JPG: Paul Cuffee
Paul Cuffee, the son of a freed slave and an American Indian, became a successful ship owner, captain, and merchant. In the early 1800s, he built a school in Westport, Massachusetts, open to students of any race -- likely the first integrated school in America.
SIAHGI_210524_013.JPG: Isabella Graham
Isabella Graham helped found the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children in 1797. It is one of the earliest examples of an American charity organization created by women.
SIAHGI_210524_014.JPG: James Smithson
British scientist James Smithson never traveled to America. But his 1829 bequest to the United States "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men" allowed Congress to establish the Smithsonian Institution.
SIAHGI_210524_018.JPG: Judah Touro
A prominent Jewish American in the early 1800s, Judah Touro's philanthropic focus was on his adopted home of New Orleans. His work yielded a cemetery, a synagogue, an almshouse, and an infirmary for sailors.
SIAHGI_210524_021.JPG: Harriet Tubman
Though better known for her work as an abolitionist, Harriet Tubman was also a committed philanthropist, particularly after the Civil War. Despite her own financial difficulties, in 1908 she founded a home for the elderly and poor African Americans in Auburn, New York.
SIAHGI_210524_027.JPG: Philip Armour
Like many Gilded Age elites, Philip Armour balanced his reputation as an iron-fisted industrialist with generous philanthropy to his home city. He made his fortune in Chicago's meatpacking industry, at the expense of his workers.
SIAHGI_210524_029.JPG: Madam C.J. Walker
A famed African American entrepreneur and inventor, she created the Madame C.J. Walker Benevolent Association in 1916 and led the effort to preserve the home of Frederick Douglass in Anacostia.
SIAHGI_210524_035.JPG: The establishment of the Museum's Philanthropic Initiative and its Giving in America exhibition is made possible through the generous support of
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
David M. Rubenstein
SIAHGI_210524_040.JPG: Fundraising Box, 2000s
Schools have enlisted students in fundraising to support educational activities. Businesses have profited from developing fundraising products specifically for schools and youth activities. This portable box was used by a public school student to raise funds in Selma, California, in the early 2000s.
SIAHGI_210524_048.JPG: Who Pays for Education?
From the nation's beginning, Americans have grappled with who gets educated and who pays for education. Both public and private schools have relied on a combination of public and private funding. Disparities in wealth and political influence have affected Americans' ability to support schools. As a result, educational philanthropy has reflected inequalities in the American economy and society. Giving through contributions of time and money has both created opportunities for students and increased inequalities among them.
In the case of the industrial schools explored here, some white reformers used their privileged positions in attempts to assimilate minorities to the dominant culture, while in other instances, communities used the industrial school model to meet their own needs.
SIAHGI_210524_053.JPG: Fundraising Poster, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2017
Most public school teachers provide classroom supplies using their own funds or by raising money. Educator Teresa Danks Roark's roadside fundraising in Tulsa, Oklahoma, went viral in the summer of 2017.
SIAHGI_210524_056.JPG: Newspaper Headlines, 2019
Student debt, underpaid adjunct faculty, the rising cost of higher education, and universities' ties to American slavery were all topics of debate in media sources across the United States in 2019. These conversations have roots in earlier era's debates and decisions about the economy, education, gender and racial equality, and more.
SIAHGI_210524_060.JPG: School Cup and Saucer, Washington, D.C., 20th Century
The National Training School for Women and Girls was part of the industrial school movement to teach employable skills. Classes included dressmaking, hairdressing, book-keeping, waitressing, typewriting, laundering, and missionary training, along with music, English, history, and science classes. This cup and saucer were used by students, many of whom boarded at the school.
SIAHGI_210524_066.JPG: chool Plan, Braintree Massachusetts, 1811
Americans have long levied taxes to fund education while attempting to keep costs down. White male voters in a growing Massachusetts town approved the construction of a new public school. The builder of this school was required to build it in a "plain but workmanlike" manner.
SIAHGI_210524_068.JPG: Tuition card, Jonesboro, Georgia, 1910–1918
The segregated Georgia school attended by sisters Eula (born 1901) and Lillian (born 1904) Arnold charged 15 cents per month in tuition.
SIAHGI_210524_077.JPG: Pleasant Hill School Lunch Tray
Around 1964
In 1912, Booker T. Washington initiated a partnership with philanthropist Julius Rosenwald to provide better education for black children. The Rosenwald Rural School Initiative worked with communities to award matching grants that resulted in the construction of over 5,000 schools in fifteen southern states by 1933.
SIAHGI_210524_085.JPG: Harper's School District Library, Mid-19th Century
Beyond paying taxes, communities have helped to fund schools through giving time, money, and supplies. This portable library is typical of one that hung on school walls in the 1800s. In some schools, a portable library was purchased through community donations, while in others, an individual donated one.
SIAHGI_210524_089.JPG: Property Tax Receipt, Hopkins County, Texas, 19th Century
Property taxes have been levied to help pay for public education since the colonial era. Property-tax-based school funding has contributed to educational inequality. Wealthier districts typically have more tax money to spend per student. This property tax receipt from Texas includes taxes that would have supported public education.
SIAHGI_210524_098.JPG: Button, 1978
Property taxes are a critical funding source for American public schools. In 1978 California voters passed Proposition 13, significantly lowering property tax rates and thus reducing funds available for public education. The California Teachers Association sold this button for $5 at the 1978 National Education Association convention to oppose the proposition.
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Description of Subject Matter: Giving in America
November 29, 2016 – Permanent
Giving in America, a permanent exhibit that looks at the history of philanthropy’s role in shaping the United States, opened November 29 which is also #Giving Tuesday, a global day of giving. The exhibit showcases four major themes of American philanthropy centered on the questions of “Who Gives?” “Why Do We Give?” “What Do We Give?” and “How Do We Give?” and uses artifacts ranging from an alms box of the 1800s to a bucket used during the 2014-15 “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” which went viral on social media. The exhibit features a section devoted to an annual topic and will open with a look at “Sustainability and the Environment."
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2021 photos: This year, which started with former child president's attempted coup and the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, gradually got better.
Trips this year:
(May, October) After getting fully vaccinated, I made two trips down to Asheville, NC to visit my dad and his wife Dixie, and
(mid-July) I made a quick trip up to Stockbridge, MA to see the Norman Rockwell Museum again as well as Daniel Chester French's place @ Chesterwood.
Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Number of photos taken this year: about 283,000, up slightly from 2020 levels but still really low.
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