Benjamin Banneker Museum

Benjamin Banneker is called the first African-American Man of Science.  He was an incredibly smart man that you may remember from US History as participating in the surveying the District of Columbia.  He did that in later life.  Before that as a self taught scientist he charted the skies and wrote an almanac.  He took apart a pocket watch and then built his own from wood.

Vantage House where I live had a trip to nearby Oella, MD to the Banneker Museum this week.  The museum sits on land that was once owned by the Banneker family.  Though I taught Maryland history to 4th graders and they learned about Banneker, I had never visited this museum.

The only portrait of Banneker is a woodcut (blown up below) that appeared on his almanac.

Banneker's father took the last name of his wife and changed it from Bannaka to Banneker.

Archaeologists have found where the original structures stood on the land.  Unfortunately the cabin where Banneker lived burned to the ground during his funeral.  He never married but there are descendants of his sister's children who gather at the museum for reunions.

A reconstruction of the cabin is behind the museum.