thumb|upright=1.2|[[Carnegie Library of Washington D.C.|Carnegie Library building in Mount Vernon Square houses the Historical Society (2008)]]
thumb|upright=1.2|Carnegie Library building seen from the south in 2019
The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., also called the DC History Center, is an educational foundation dedicated to preserving and displaying the history of Washington, D.C. The society provides lectures, exhibits, classes, and community events. It runs a museum, library, and publishes the journal Washington History. It had been named The Columbia Historical Society from its founding in 1894 until 1988.
The society's home is the Carnegie Library of Washington D.C., a Beaux-Arts building in the center of Mount Vernon Square in Washington. It was built in 1902 to be District of Columbia Public Library, one of the many Carnegie libraries. The building is open to the public from Monday through Sunday 10am to 5pm. Visitors can tour the exhibits and use the society's Kiplinger Research Library, which has books, maps, photographs, and other materials relevant to the history of the city.
Washington History
The society publishes a peer-reviewed academic journal Washington History, generally twice a year. The editorial board includes George Derek Musgrove, Chris Myers Asch, and Jane Freundel Levey.
The journal's predecessor was the original Records of the Columbia Historical Society, which was published from 1894 to 1989. The organization had as its goal "collecting the scattered and rapidly disappearing records of events and individuals prominent in the history of the city and District." Although African Americans constituted one-third of the then-racially segregated city's population, the membership of the Columbia Historical Society was all white.
In 1998, Monica Scott Beckham, vice president of the society's board of trustees, went before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations to seek federal funding for a City Museum of Washington, D.C. Congress appropriated $2 million in 1999 "provided that the District of Columbia shall lease the Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square to the Society ... for 99 years at $1 per year". The City Museum opened in May 2003, but closed in November 2004 because of a lack of funding and interest.
In 2006, the society and the National Music Center entered into an agreement that permitted the Music Center to occupy a substantial portion of the Carnegie Library for three years.
The Carnegie Library houses the society's research library, rotating exhibits, and offices.
Notable people
- Mary Stevens Beall (1854–1917), librarian and secretary of the Columbia Historical Society