Smithsonian’s NMAAHC Adds Work of Michael Marshall to Permanent Collection

Architect Michael Marshall, head of DC-based Michael Marshall Design, has donated a selection of his architectural design archives to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The design archives are comprised of original drawings and models. Mr. Marshall was approached in January of 2017 by museum curator Michelle Joan Wilkinson, who was creating an archive of material focused on African-American architects, as part of the museum’s mission to recognize and represent the tremendous breadth of African-American history and culture.

Over the course of many months, Ms. Wilkinson and other museum staff visited with Mr. Marshall and reviewed drawings, sketches and models from his personal and professional collection. The items range from some that he created when he was a child to work recently completed for his firm’s clients. Selected items were approved for addition to the Museum’s permanent collection in March of 2018.

“The National Museum of African American History and Culture is excited to collect from Michael Marshall, a practicing architect in Washington, D.C., said Michelle J. Wilkinson, curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. “As an architect, Marshall has designed sports venues, residential communities and buildings for higher education, including designing for his alma mater the University of the District of Columbia. The collected archive includes Marshall’s conceptual sketches and more detailed plans for building projects to show the architect’s process of developing and refining a design idea over time.”

“It is a profound honor to have my work accepted into the Smithsonian’s permanent collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture,” said Michael Marshall. “As a young boy growing up here in Washington, D.C., I loved drawing and design. I could only have dreamed that a career contributing to the renaissance of our city would have led me to this meaningful moment. I am deeply humbled to play a part in the storytelling that shapes a proud and distinct history of contributions from the African-American community.”

Read the full press release here.