Archives Relocate to Museum Resource Center

Date: February 12, 2014
Contact: Gopaul Noojibail, 202-690-5127

WASHINGTON — Consistent with its mission to preserve the nation’s treasures, the National Park Service (NPS) will relocate the National Archives for Black Women’s History collection from Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site to the NPS’s Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland. The relocation is in response to a site evaluation that documented inadequate conditions to appropriately house the archives.

The Museum Resource Center is the central curatorial facility for more than 5 million documents and museum objects from national parks throughout the region. It features modern environmental systems that maintain appropriate humidity and temperature, research laboratories and a cold storage vault for sensitive materials. The facility already houses some material from the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House collections alongside those from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, Arlington House, Clara Barton National Historic Site and other national parks.

The archives will be closed beginning February 18 through March 9, 2014. Researchers may request appointments for March 10 and after by contacting the Museum Resource Center at [phone] or email: e-mail us.

The NPS will evaluate whether it’s feasible to return the National Archives for Black Women’s History to Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site. For additional information please visit www.nps.gov/mamc.

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, 1318 Vermont Avenue, NW, will remain open (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 7-days a week) to interpret the legacy of Mary McLeod Bethune, the National Council of Negro Women, and other associated Civil Rights organizations and leaders, including notable figures such as Dr. Dorothy Height.

www.nps.gov