The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise is the opening exhibition at the National Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery in the Smithsonian Institution’s newly renovated National Museum of American History. NMAAHC will use this gallery as its temporary home until its own museum opens in 2015.

Addison Scurlock, joined later by his sons, ran one of the premiere African American photography studios in the country for nearly the entire twentieth century. Over that period of vast and rapid 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. The Scurlocks captured family events and iconic moments, such as Marian Anderson’s extraordinary concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Respected by both scholars and artists, the studio’s legacy lies both in the record they built of African American urban communities and in their vivid and dignified photographs. They were particularly renowned for their portraiture, including portraits of luminaries such as Duke Ellington and Muhammad Ali.

The exhibit features about 100 of their photographs, items from the NMAAHC’s fashion collection, and various artifacts including several from the Scurlock family and the fur coat worn by Marian Anderson during her concert.