The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum: African American History in Still Form

At Baltimore's National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, visitors get a lesson in history as they wander around wax sculptures of some of the country's most famous and influential African Americans. Opened in 1983 for the purpose of studying and preserving African-American history and its Africa lineage, the Great Blacks in Wax Museum has worked to dispel myths and highlight the achievements of black leaders and encouraged students and youths who visit the museum to model themselves after these individuals. Hundreds of visitors come through the museum each year, including numerous school groups.

The beauty of using wax figures is that they look so incredibly real and thus successfully re-create scenes in history and convey horrific messages of racism and brutality, as well as proud and glorious moments. More than 100 life-size wax figures occupy the museum, including Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson, Colin Powell, Rosa Parks and Billie Holiday. A prominent display of Henry “Box” Brown climbing out of a shipping crate illustrates how he mailed himself to freedom. Other brave blacks include three astronauts and Matthew Henson, the first black geographic explorer and associate of Robert Peary.

More disturbing images include a replica of a 19th century slave ship. The ship is purposefully designed to feel tight and crowded, demonstrating the conditions experienced by Africans sent over on these vessels. It includes a headless corpse, often seen on slave ships as a means to control captives as they boarded. Another diaorama shows two white men shoving food down a shackled slave's throat with a funnel. Even more disturbing is the room that displays race-driven lynchings, with replicas of jars of various organs collected by lynch mobs on display. Another display shows a klansman with a noose draped around a little boy's neck holding a sign that reads “We are not afraid.”

The museum also celebrates local Baltimore celebrities, including Thurgood Marshall, Eubie Blake and Billie Holiday. Others include W.E.B. DuBois, Makeda Queen of Sheba, Nat Turner and the famous African pygmy Ota Benga, who was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. In reality, there are just too many historical and prominent black figures for the museum to house inside the museum.

Great Blacks in Wax museum Baltimore black history