👀 For the Love of Local Museums
I've been a Board Member of the Heurich House Museum for almost six years now. In that time, I've watched this place do something amazing: it became a historic house museum that actually feels alive. Community-centered, inventive, deeply rooted in DC. And since we're on the subject: we're looking for a new Executive Director to lead this next chapter (more details below).
Local museums have a special place in my heart, and DC has many good ones. They engage their communities in ways that larger institutions can't. They offer leisure, yes, but also lifting up overlooked stories that give a city its character. The kind of stories that don't make it into the big survey books but stay with you longer.
It was during the pandemic years that Heurich House first invited me as a maker in their virtual market. With the help of the Portland Stamp Company, I created a series of riso stamps featuring local museums. I always felt that series deserved more attention than it got. So I've been slowly reworking it, releasing the illustrations one by one.
The Folger Shakespeare Library was the first. In fact, the whole idea of revisiting the series began because of them because one day they reached out asking to carry my postcards. Within a couple of hours of reading their email, I had a new postcard ready to pitch. They loved it, and a few other illustrations have followed since. I think I may turn this opportunity into some sort of business model!
Next in the series: Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Gardens in Georgetown, with its majestic Federal-style facade and remarkable collections. A quiet thing I didn’t know about that place: in 1944, representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China gathered there to sketch out what would eventually become the United Nations.
And then there's one I pass every day on my commute: President Lincoln's Cottage in Petworth. Gothic Revival, tucked into the neighborhood like it has always been there. Lots of activities for kids, interesting programs, and a way of uncovering the Lincoln family's quieter life in that part of Washington… the part that didn't make it into the monuments.
Do you know of any other museums that might want to be part of the series? Send me your ideas.
