Read more about how the Folger Library ended up in Washington, D.C.: https://boundarystones.weta.org/2017/05/08/literary-neighbors-folger-and-library-congress
Read more about Ali's visit to Howard: https://boundarystones.weta.org/2014/04/14/muhammad-alis-speech-howard-university-1967
Read more about protests over Howard's identity as a Black university: https://boundarystones.weta.org/2024/12/17/how-howard-university-students-challenged-its-identity-black-university
Celebrate National Library Week and Right to Read Day with this special WETA+ screening of the 2026 documentary "The Librarians" with a facilitated discussion afterwards at the Sherwood Regional Library on Wednesday, April 22! Register here.
About "The Librarians": When lawmakers seek to review a list of books, librarians find themselves on the frontlines of a national battle. Across the U.S., librarians face the impact of uniting against library collection standards that include restrictions on race-related and LGBTQIA+ content. Drawing on historical context, "The Librarians" explores the broader implications for education and public life.
Join us as WETA partners with Fairfax County Public Library to provide easy access to free video streaming services for FCPL’s visitors, customers and cardholders though WETA+, a free and easy-to-use streaming service and app for all ages and interests.
Read more about D.C.'s embrace of 'Taxation Without Representation': https://boundarystones.weta.org/2020/02/12/washington-taxation-without-representation-history
Rachel Carson at Woods Hole, MA, 1950. (Courtesy of the Linda Lear Center for Special Collections & Archives, Connecticut College)
Read more: https://boundarystones.weta.org/2017/01/19/rachel-carson-silver-spring
Signature Dish's Seth Tillman explores what makes their Rawon soup a Javanese masterpiece.
As Filmfest DC approaches its milestone 40th anniversary (April 16–26, 2026), WETA Metro is premiering three short films this Saturday, April 11 at 8 PM. These films reflect the kind of storytelling the festival has championed for decades, with a deep focus on the people and neighborhoods that make the District home.
These films each explore preservation, access, and restoration in distinct ways:
Anacostia Portraits Revives 19th-century tintype photography to document the people of Anacostia, creating a modern-day community archive rooted in a historic process.
Black Printmakers of Washington DC: Traces how local artists built their own creative spaces in response to exclusion, shaping the city’s art scene over the last 50 years. Local history fans might recognize the journey of the WD Printmaking Workshop—it actually grew out of a home studio in Adams Morgan before moving to its legendary basement space on Lamont Street in Mount Pleasant.
Back to the Sky: Follows a falconer who rehabilitates injured birds of prey, offering a quiet reflection on care, second chances, and personal transformation.
Together, these films highlight how individuals create space—for art, for community, and for healing.
If you’re planning to check out Filmfest DC this year, this is the perfect lead-in to the festival's April 16 kickoff.
The White House Easter Egg Roll started 148 years ago with a "Get Off My Lawn" moment. Congress kicked egg-rolling kids off the Capitol grounds and Rutherford B. Hayes opened the White House gates for them. Black and white kids participated in the early years before the event became segregated. When Jim Crow excluded African Americans, they created their own Easter Monday Egg Roll event at the National Zoo.
The H St. Streetcar has moved one to join the other streetcars of D.C. past. The first streetcar in D.C. was built in the 1860s and pulled by horses. The first electrified streetcars began operating in 1888 in Eckington. Learn more on the history of the DC Streetcars: https://boundarystones.weta.org/2014/01/27/dcs-once-grand-streetcar-system
Aside from his ties to the hospital, Marvin Gaye left his mark across the city, perhaps most notably in the Capitol Heights neighborhood. (You can also explore more local history locations, all accessible via Metro, via our Historical DC Metro Map.)
And learn more about the neighborhood Marvin grew up in from the Deanwood episode of If You Lived Here.
Hello r/movies, we're Erik Ewers & Christopher Loren Ewers.
We're the directors of the new PBS film HENRY DAVID THOREAU. It's produced by Ken Burns & Don Henley
It's a 3-part, 3-hour documentary that premiered yesterday (Monday 3/30) and can be watched here:
https://www.pbs.org/show/henry-david-Thoreau/
Our trailer:
https://www.pbs.org/video/series-preview-4fsv3e/
>HENRY DAVID THOREAU examines the life and work of the 19th-century writer in the context of antebellum New England and the larger United States, as well as through the universal themes he focused on in his writings: an individual’s relationship to the state, how to live an authentic life, our connection to nature, and the impact of race on American life. Set against the political and social tensions of the mid-19th century, the film traces Thoreau’s journey from his early days in Concord, Massachusetts to his deep engagement with the moral crises of his time, including industrialization, slavery, war, and environmental degradation. Through his essays, journals, and landmark works such as Walden and Civil Disobedience, he became an inspiration for generations of writers, thinkers, and activists.
>HENRY DAVID THOREAU is narrated by George Clooney and voices are provided by Ted Danson (Ralph Waldo Emerson), Tate Donovan (William Ellery Channing), Jeff Goldblum (Henry David Thoreau), and Meryl Streep (Lidian Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Mary Merrick Brooks, and Maria Thoreau).
>The film draws on a rich collection of archival materials, newly filmed cinematography in Concord and beyond, and interviews with scholars, writers, and environmentalists. Among the people featured in the film are Pico Iyer, Douglas Brinkley, Lois Brown, Kristen Case, Laura Dassow Walls, Clay Jenkinson, Robin Kimmerer, J. Drew Lanham, Bill McKibben, Michael Pollan, Rebecca Solnit, and more.
Ask us anything! We will be back later today, Tuesday 3/31, to answer any question you may have. (and we may be back throughout the week as well!
Read more about the rise and fall of the D.C. Mafia: https://boundarystones.weta.org/2019/11/05/serious-these-guys-will-kill-you-salvatore-cottone-and-true-story-short-lived-dc-mafia
For middle or working-class African American families in early twentieth-century D.C., there were limited educational opportunities for their daughters. But on eight acres of land in Northeast DC, there was a school that drew students from across the nation with its sterling reputation and audacious mission.
Applications were competitive and laborious: prospective students submitted dental records, affirmed their religious upbringings, and took entrance exams. Parents should be “interested and cooperative,” and their daughters of sharp wits and good character. “Girls who have UNSATISFACTORY records in deportment in other schools or in the community,” the principal noted, “NEED NOT APPLY.”
