Visionary Historian Award!

Thursday, we went to the 123rd anniversary celebration and Visionary Historian Award at Carnegie Library. We snapped Historical Society of Washington, DC, board members MDB Communications CEO and brand advocate Cary Hatch with Newseum’s Scott Williams.

The Historical Society honored Dr. Frank Smith, founding director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, with its fourth Visionary Historian Award. The award is presented annually to an individual whose lifetime body of work represents the highest achievement in the study of DC and related history. Smith formed the African American Civil War Memorial Freedom Foundation in 1992 to tell the largely forgotten story of the 209,145 African-American soldiers and sailors who had fought for the Union. He began planning, fundraising, and building public and private support for an African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, and in July 1998, Smith presided over the memorial’s dedication at 10th and U streets NW. Here, Frank with Arcana Foundation executive director Paula Hansen and her husband, Todd Hansen.

The Historical Society of Washington, DC, founded in 1894, is a community-supported educational and research organization that collects, interprets and shares the history of our nation's capital. The organization offers exhibitions and programs throughout the year encouraging the collection of local history as well as the documentation of contemporary DC. Here, Historical Society library and collections director Anne McDonough with the University of Michigan’s Katherine Eyster.

Guests enjoyed a cocktail reception, hors d’oeuvres, music and award presentation, as well as a chance to talk to Civil War re-enactors, like Military Road School’s Carol Gordon and African American Civil War Memorial and Museum’s Marquette Milton.

Here, John Suau, executive director of the Historical Society of Washington, DC, with the event's emcee, NBC4 anchor Wendy Rieger.