Louise Daniel Hutchinson (June 3, 1928 – October 12, 2014) was an American historian. She was the former Director of the Research at the

Anacostia Community Museum The Anacostia Community Museum (known colloquially as the ACM) is a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is one of twenty museums under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution and was the ...

. Growing up in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, Hutchinson was exposed to the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

and the importance of community. Hutchinson worked closely with the African American community of Washington, D.C., and staff at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

to help build the Anacostia Community Museum. She was a historian of the

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is nam ...

community.

Biography

Early life and education

Louise Daniel Hutchinson was born in

Ridge, Maryland Ridge is an unincorporated community in St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States. Bard's Field was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It is near the southernmost tip of the western shore of Maryland, known as Point Loo ...

, to Victor Daniel and Constance Eleanor (nee Hazel),, but was raised in the

Shaw Shaw may refer to: Places Australia *Shaw, Queensland Canada *Shaw Street, a street in Toronto England *Shaw, Berkshire, a village *Shaw, Greater Manchester, a location in the parish of Shaw and Crompton *Shaw, Swindon, a List of United Kingdom ...

neighborhood of

Her parents were both educators, leading the Cardinal Gibbons Institute, a Black Catholic school built on the model of Tuskegee. Her mother was an acquaintance of

William Henry Hastie William Henry Hastie Jr. (November 17, 1904 – April 14, 1976) was an American lawyer, judge, educator, public official, and civil rights advocate. He was the first African American to serve as Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, as a ...

Mary McLeod Bethune Mary Jane McLeod Bethune ( McLeod; July 10, 1875 – May 18, 1955) was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, Womanism, womanist, and civil rights activist. Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935, established th ...

and

Carter G. Woodson Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He was one of the first scholars to study the h ...

. Both parents were also active in local

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

affairs, including

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

activities. As a young person, Louise attended the ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

'' court proceedings in Kansas. She was educated at her parent's school before attending a number of different colleges, including Miner Teachers College (now known as

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher learnin ...

, and

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

. It was from the latter that she earned her bachelor's degree in 1951. At Howard, she studied under

Ralph Bunche Ralph Johnson Bunche (; August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize f ...

John Hope Franklin John Hope Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was an American historian of the United States and former president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Histo ...

and E. Franklin Frazer. Soon thereafter, she married Ellsworth W. Hutchinson, Jr. and they had six children. She also worked as a

substitute teacher A substitute teacher is a person who teaches a school class when the regular teacher is absent or unavailable; e.g., because of illness, personal leave, maternal leave and so on. "Substitute teacher" (usually abbreviated as "sub") is the most co ...

Career

The Smithsonian

Hutchinson started working as a researcher at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in 1971. She researched African American portraits, such as the legacy of John Brown, and also worked on the exhibition ''The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution''. The following year, she became an Education Research Specialist, where she worked on partnership projects between the museum and D.C. Public Schools. Anacostia Historical Society Members

National Park Service

In 1973, she took the same title, Education Research Specialist, at the Frederick Douglass Home National Memorial for the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

. There, she trained staff regarding the interpretation of the memorial.

Return to the Smithsonian

The following year, 1974, Hutchinson became the Historian and Director of Research at the

(ACM). She helped write the mission for the museum, acquired objects for the collection, strengthened relationships with the other

units and the local neighborhood. She researched various content for exhibitions, including ''The Anacostia Story: 1608-1903'', about the

community, ''The Frederick Douglass Years'', ''Out of Africa: From West African Kingdoms to Colonization'', and ''Black Women: Achievements Against the Odds''. Hutchinson also developed the museum’s

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...

program and helped found the Anacostia Historical Society. Hutchinson's work influenced her scholarly contributions and vice versa. Her book about Anna J. Cooper was called an "important contribution" to American history in '' The Georgia Historical Quarterly''. Hutchinson also focused on public engagement, providing advice and information to scholars, students, teachers, and amateur historians when many other Smithsonian scholars would not respond directly to public queries. She retired in 1986.

Death

She died at the age of 86 on October 12, 2014.

Selected works

*Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. ''The Anacostia Story, 1608-1930''. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press (1977). *Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. ''Anna J. Cooper, a voice from the South''. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press (1982). *Hutchinson, Louise Daniel. ''Out of Africa: From west African kingdoms to colonization''. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press (1979).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, Louise Daniel 1928 births 2014 deaths 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics 20th-century American educators Howard University alumni People from Shaw (Washington, D.C.) Prairie View A&M University alumni Smithsonian Institution people National Park Service personnel People from St. Mary's County, Maryland 20th-century American women writers African-American Catholics 20th-century American women educators Educators from Washington, D.C. Educators from Maryland 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women