DC Line post on Bloomingdale's Barnett Aden Gallery at 127 Randolph Place NW

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Art expert reflects on his work in DC at the nation’s first private gallery owned by African-Americans

By Katherine Saltzman On Feb 26, 2019 Last updated Feb 26, 2019

As an art student at Howard University in 1949, David Driskell spent his evenings working as a taxicab driver to make extra income. But it was his daytime job that sparked his lifelong career as a scholar, painter and authority on African-American art: As curator of the Barnett Aden Gallery, Driskell contributed to the growth and influence of the nation’s first African-American-owned private gallery, originally located at 127 Randolph Place NW in DC’s Bloomingdale neighborhood.                   

In October, the Barnett Aden Gallery celebrated the 75th anniversary of its 1943 launch by Howard University professors Alonzo Aden and James V. Herring. In addition to their teaching duties, Herring chaired Howard’s Department of Art and Aden served as a curator at Howard’s Gallery of Art. But the two colleagues also saw a need for a new, independent gallery, which they named after Aden’s mother, Naomi Barnett Aden. The gallery operated until 1969.
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