The National Women’s History Museum will house its first physical exhibit on the ground floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown D.C. this spring, and the first piece of art has already been installed: a shattered-glass sculpture of Vice President Kamala Harris, standing over 8.5 feet tall and stretching 7 feet wide.
The non-profit National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) — not to be confused with the forthcoming Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum — has served as an online-only resource since 1996 in response to the sparsity of female representation in museums and history books, according to a press release. While the museum has until now had no physical space, it has administrative offices in Alexandria. A web page for the museum describes it as a “museum without walls.”
That said, the collaboration between the NWHM and the D.C. Public Library will bring an exhibit about Black feminism in D.C. to the MLK Library’s main floor in March 2023. The exhibit will trace the movement from the early 1900s, through the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, to the present day, according to a release.
“After decades of searching for and working toward a physical home for our exhibitions and programs—with the tireless help of our members and allies—we are thrilled that the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, which shares our core values of inclusion and diversity, will be our first,” Susan Whiting, the NWHM’s board chair, said in a statement.
Swiss artist Simon Berger’s innovative portrait of Vice President Harris, “Glass Ceiling Breaker,” was displayed on the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial for three days last winter.
Berger crafted the image by hand using a hammer. A crew shipped the award-winning piece from a New York storage facility, cleaned, and installed it at the MLK Library Wednesday morning, per The Washington Post.
The sculpture itself will actually leave the museum when the main exhibit opens in March.
Berger created “Glass Ceiling Breaker” as a tribute to Harris and her accomplishments as the first woman, Black American, and South Asian American to become vice president.
“When we set forth to make this homage to Vice President Harris’ accomplishments, we hoped it would resonate and symbolize strength, courage and perseverance,” said Amani Duncan, the CEO of BBH USA, a creative agency that commissioned the work.
Two historians, Sherie Randolph and Kendra Field, curated the Black feminism exhibit, which will tell the stories of organizers and leaders from Anna Julia Cooper to Eleanor Holmes Norton, who’ve made an impact on D.C. and American culture.
The renovated MLK Library is also home to a set of permanent D.C. history exhibits on the fourth floor
Elliot C. Williams