02.28.10 • The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise exhibition, designed by Christopher Chadbourne & Associates (CCA) closed on February 28, 2010, after more than a year in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) gallery located in the Smithsonian's newly renovated National Museum of American History.

Addison Scurlock, joined later by his sons, ran one of the premier African American photography studios in the country for nearly the entire twentieth century. Over that period of vast change, their photographs documented the unique community

of African Americans in Washington DC: their high society, their celebrations, weddings and picnics, graduations and civil rights protests. Scores of visitors wrote personal recollections about their memories of Washington, D.C. and about the exhibition:

"It is amazing this exhibit of the Scurlock portraits! Beautiful, heartwarming—life on exhibit. Many of the heroes and heroines he snapped were etched on my memory early on but I relished the memories brought back by viewing this wonderful, wonderful exhibit," wrote Lilla A.

The exhibit featured about 100 photographs, items from the NMAAHC's fashion collection, and various artifacts, including several from the Scurlock family as well as the fur coat worn by Marian Anderson during her extraordinary concert at the Lincoln Memorial.