ELC Students Explore DC History at the Apple Carnegie Library
Standing just a block from Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies building downtown is a white, traditional, and altogether out of place building. It shines out, a lone classical structure surrounded by a sea of modern glass office buildings. Stranger, while looking like it could be a Roman temple or one of DC’s many museums, it has glowing Apple brand logos in the windows. This building has an important place in DC history. It is called the Apple Carnegie Library.
In February, Prof. Andrew Screen took his Intensive Language and Culture class to the Carnegie Library for a field trip. He had many reasons on his mind for why he wanted to show them this beautiful building that so many of ELC’s students walk by every day without really noticing. Close to SCS, it would allow his students to engage in ideas about public libraries and philanthropy in the DC area. It would also serve as a hands-on look at design, giving opportunities for students to think about what makes something well-designed and to be able to speak about it using phrases and grammar learned in class. Finally, the Carnegie Library has a special history that Prof. Screen wanted to highlight during Black History Month: it was the first public desegregated building in Washington, DC.
The trip would be a combination of individual and group learning. Before they walked over, Prof. Screen, in the role of cheerful guide, taught his class the basics of the Carnegie Library’s history, from its dedication in 1903 to its modern role as the home of the DC History Center. Finally, he explained its partnership with Apple Inc., which led to its 2019 reopening as the Apple Carnegie Library with an Apple Store, and showed them a video of Oprah Winfrey leading her book club from the store. Afterwards, they headed over and started their tasks; explore, take pictures of things that look well-designed, language used on signage, and whatever looked interesting to ask questions about. Soon enough, Karen Harris, the Senior Manager of Visitor Services with the DC History Center noticed their group and gave them a private tour while dropping her favorite facts about the history of DC. As a lifelong resident of Virginia, Prof. Screen felt proud that DC’s local history and culture were being shared and that his students were welcomed.
At the Carnegie Library, the class was able to more than just read about Black History Month: they saw living, breathing history through photography. Pictures of Black and white people together, a normal part of our multicultural society now, were radical in DC’s first public desegregated building a century ago. In that space, students saw photos of classes at Eastern High School and Howard University, learned about Amelia Earhart and Women’s Suffrage movements. Our students come from countries with different cultures and histories, so seeing the timeline of the Civil Rights Movement in our country can be humbling and helpful for students to see and understand the history of minorities in America, to learn about new and old ideas. Going with classmates with a bit of class-inspired structure made it easier to really engage with that history. The photos on the wall tell the story where not much else needs to be said – a picture is worth a thousand words.
At the end of the day, the students reflected on their trip and talked about their impressions. The library was huge and beautiful from the outside, and one student was awed by the history on the inside. While one student thought that the partnership with Apple changed the historic character of the building, another liked the mixture of tradition and technology, smartphones along with old maps and uniforms from the Metro. More than anything, they left with a new perspective on the history of DC and the opportunities that are sometimes quite literally just around the corner from SCS.
Author Daniel Graff is the Student Services Manager of the English Language Center.
