National Juneteenth Museum calls for artifact donations to tell story of emancipation

The National Juneteenth Museum, to be located in Fort Worth, is now accepting cultural artifact donations.

Museum curators announced Thursday that donors can help tell the story of Juneteenth by contributing objects, art, personal letters, diaries, videos and photographs that document the history of emancipation and Juneteenth.

Juneteenth recognizes when enslaved Black Americans in Texas gained their freedom June 19, 1865, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Fort Worth, home to the “Grandmother of Juneteeth” Opal Lee, was chosen as the home for the National Juneteenth Museum in 2021. Lee, a civil rights activist, was nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

The museum will be on the 900 block of East Rosedale Street in the Historic Southside neighborhood. A groundbreaking is slated for later this year and is expected to open in June 2025.

If you have a cultural artifact related to emancipation or Juneteenth, fill out a form found on the museum’s website. If you have questions contact museum personnel at collection@thenjm.org.

What objects can I donate to the Juneteenth museum?

Examples of objects that can be donated listed on the form include:

• notes, letters, diaries, journals

• badges, buttons, paraphernalia

• newspapers, magazines

• posters

• programs, papers, pamphlets

• clothes, garments, uniforms

• digital images, video footage, recordings

• sculpture, fibers

• historical photographs, prints, fine art

• oral history interviews