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Where Past Meets Future
by Aaron Levin
Winston Anderson
Over three decades, Winston Anderson filled his garage with objects and documents tracing the history of African slaves and their American descendants. Now anyone can see his collection at the Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery in rural Maryland, 20 miles north of his lab at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Exhibits cover African American history from “the slave ship to the space ship,” says Anderson, without exaggeration. A cutaway replica of a clipper ship that transported slaves from Africa to the New World stands on the lawn, while inside the two-story museum a display of African American scientists and engineers includes astronauts Ronald McNair, Mae Jemison, and Michael Anderson.
Winston Anderson's interest in the story of race in America began when he arrived in the United States from Jamaica at 17 to begin studies at Howard University. It was the late 1950s, and pressure for racial equality was escalating.
“I'm fortunate to have grown up when the civil rights movement was in full flower,” he says.
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A Tour of History
See the exhibits and artifacts on display at the Sandy Spring Slave Museum.
 
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Now a biology professor at Howard, Anderson studies estrogen's mechanism of action and biomarkers for breast cancer, among other subjects. With support as an HHMI professor, he also directs a program that will prepare, over a five-year period, 100 selected students from this historically black college for careers in biomedical research.
The idea for the museum germinated slowly.
“At first, I was simply interested in the subject matter, but as the collection grew, I felt it should be presented to a wider audience,” he says.
Anderson traces his awareness of African American origins to his childhood in Jamaica and a mother who refused to be narrowly defined by race alone.
“A different kind of consciousness is bred into you—the exposure of conditions, the fight for freedom,” he says. “My mission is to enlighten the visitors who come to the museum.”
Photo: Andrew Cutraro
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