Efforts to create a museum of African American history in Chicago, unlike those in Cleveland, were undertaken by a group of artists and educators in 1961.  The goal was to ensure the inclusion of black history and culture in the educational process.  The museum?s first home was a home that later served as a boarding house for railroad workers.  The present day namesake of the museum was Jean Baptist Pointe DuSable, a Haitian fur trader who was the first permanent settler in Chicago.  The DuSable Museum is a community institution dedicated to serving cultural and educational needs.  It is the only major independent institution in Chicago established to preserve and interpret the historical experiences and achievements of African-Americans.

Not long afterward, the movement emerged in Detroit with the founding of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in 1965.  Their claim is that they are the world?s largest institution dedicated to the African American experience. 

Jewish Museums.  NewYork City?s Jewish Museum, connected with the venerable Jewish Theological Seminary, has founded in 1904.  Not only has the Jewish Museum taken on the role of leader of similar institutions, it is considers itself a major cultural institution for New York City and the world.  Unlike most other American Jewish museums, it also considers itself an art museum exploring Jewish culture with a considerable collection of more than 28,000 objects including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, and ceremonial objects which demonstrates Jewish identity and its evolution through visual art. It has one of the largest, most extensive collections of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1954, the American Jewish community celebrated the 300^th anniversary of the arrival of the first Jews in North America.  A major component of this celebration included the creation of several traveling and temporary exhibits.  These exhibits focused on the national narratives of the American Jewish experience.  They were staged in Jewish community centers and local history museums.

Native American Museums. For centuries, American and European museums have collected material culture from Native American communities.  Native American cultural history was shown in Natural History museums, along with the material culture of other so-called non-western societies.  Anthropology, the study of humankind, past and present, from both cultural and biological perspectives, was felt to be best presented in this setting. 

Since the late 19^th century, Native American cultural life was presented in museums in dioramas that created frozen anonymous scenes of life.  Dioramas of this type were still wide used for the interpretation of Native American life and arts through the 1970s.  As Richard Hill has written, ?Since the first American museums were developed, many anthropologists have defined Indians as ethnographic beings who produce cultural artifacts rather than fine art? (Hill, 2000: 40). 

The Osage Tribal Museum in Northeastern Oklahoma is the oldest continually operated tribal museum in the United States and features an extensive collection of archival photographs dating as far back as 1871, as well as documents and maps. The Museum also proudly displays a number of oil paintings of various tribal chiefs and dignitaries. Visitors can watch videos on Native American Indian arts and crafts such as Osage ribbon work, shawl-making, and beadwork. Audio tapes of Osage language are also available.