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Zora Martin-Felton

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Zora Martin-Felton
NationalityAmerican
OccupationMuseum director

Zora Martin-Felton (sometimes written Zora Martin Felton or Zora Felton) is an American museum director and curator. She established the education department at the Anacostia Community Museum,[1] which is a museum in the Smithsonian Institution, and worked as the Education Director there.[2] From the 1960s until the 1990s she was the Assistant Director of that museum.[3][4]

Early life and education

Felton is from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and attended Liberty High School in Bethlehem.[5] She attended Moravian College, where she graduated with a B.A. degree in 1952.[5] This made her the first black student ever admitted to Moravian College.[6] She then obtained a master's degree in education from Howard University.[5]

Career

Director and curator

Felton's first experience in museum work occurred when she was working at the Southeast Neighborhood House, which was a settlement house in Washington, D.C.[3] She was asked by the Smithsonian Institution to survey community members to study the possibility of creating a community museum in Anacostia.[3] That museum became the Anacostia Museum.[3] In 1967, the Anacostia Community Museum opened under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution, becoming the first federally funded community museum in the United States.[7] Felton was hired to direct the Education Department of the museum immediately after the museum was established,[8] and she has been credited with establishing the Education Department.[1] For nearly 30 years she was Assistant Director of the museum,[3] and a 2020 article in the DCist described Felton as having been "director of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum" during "the early 1990s".[4] At the museum she worked closely with Louise Daniel Hutchinson.[8]

In her educational role at the Anacostia Museum, Felton was responsible for curating a number of exhibits. One exhibit that she curated focused on the effects of the Norway rat in Anacostia.[3] She also helped to create a nature trail, and a traveling division of the museum.[3] Felton was also involved in the representation of African-American history at American museums and cultural sites.[9]

In the early 1990s, Felton was instrumental in organizing day-long Juneteenth celebrations in Anacostia, which was an prominent step towards broader recognition of Juneteenth in Washington, D.C.[4]

Felton retired from the Anacostia museum in 1995,[3] becoming Education Director Emeritus.[2]

Writing

Felton co-authored two books with Gail S. Lowe. They first wrote the 1976 book A walk through "Old" Anacostia, which documents the historical region of Anacostia.[10] In 1993, they published A different drummer: John Kinard and the Anacostia Museum. The book is a biography of John Kinard, the founding director of the Anacostia Community Museum and the first African American director of a Smithsonian museum, who had died in 1989.[11] A different drummer is also a history of the early Anacostia Museum,[11] and its role in the surrounding community.[12]

Awards

In 1980, Felton was honored by Howard University for Outstanding Contributions to the Life and Culture of the Black Community.[5] In June 1988, Felton was named one of America's Top 100 Black Business and Professional Women by Dollars & Sense magazine.[5] In 1991, she received the EdCom Award for Excellence in Practice from the American Alliance of Museums.[13] Felton was listed for many years in the Who's Who Among Black Americans,[5] and was a winner of the Katherine Coffee Award.[3] In 2009, the NAACP held a banquet for Felton and Constance Roberts Gates recognizing important firsts in education.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b Valentine, Victoria L. (17 December 2019). "Lonnie G. Bunch III Officially Installed as 14th Secretary of Smithsonian Institution". Culture Type. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Class Notes 1952". Moravian College. 9 August 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Honors and Awards". The Washington Post. 1 June 2000. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Lefrak, Mikaela (17 June 2020). "'A Walk Down Freedom's Road': Juneteenth's History In The Washington Region". DCist. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Bethlehem native with role at Smithsonian gets award". The Morning Call. 17 July 1988. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  6. ^ a b Buck, Michael (February 2009). "NAACP honors women for roles in education during annual banquet". Lehigh Valley Live. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  7. ^ Bass, Holly (March–April 2006). "Camille Akeju: New Director Seeks to Rejuvenate Anacostia Museum". Crisis: 37–39. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  8. ^ a b "African American Contributions to the Smithsonian: Challenges and Achievements". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  9. ^ James Oliver Horton; Spencer R. Crew (1989). Warren Leon; Roy Rosenzweig (eds.). History Museums in the United States: A Critical Assessment. University of Illinois Press. p. 215.
  10. ^ "Neighborhoods of Washington, D.C." (PDF). George Washington University. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  11. ^ a b "About A Different Drummer: John Kinard and the Anacostia Museum". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  12. ^ Autry, Robyn (March 2016). "'The rats are still with us:' Constructing Everyday Life at the Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC". Museum & Society. 14 (1): 160–177.
  13. ^ "Past Recipients of the EdCom Award for Excellence in Practice". American Alliance of Museums. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
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