After Congress authorized the new museum, the Smithsonian's Board of Regents considered four possible locations before choosing a site on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. “There is no doubt that we knew you couldn’t build this with African-American money alone,” Mr. His pitch: “You don’t get a chance to build a national museum every day.”The private money was crucial in securing funds from Congress, officials said. So the museum put out books, asked IBM to create a website, and staged exhibitions at the National Museum of American History. No Smithsonian museum had ever started life without a collection.

Source: New York Times September 04, 2016 21:41 UTC