The Heritage Wall at the Lamond-Riggs Library now has a beautiful companion book, “Fort Totten and Lamond-Riggs: A Historical Tapestry,” co-authored by Michelle Lisa Herman, Stephanie Mills Trice, and Deborah Grimstead. The book stitches together written narratives and excerpts of oral histories from contributors to the Heritage Wall, as well as photos of the original artwork from the permanent installation.

Ms. Herman, a multidisciplinary artist, created the stunning Heritage Wall at the Lamond-Riggs Library. Ms. Mills Trice created the DC Fort Totten Storytellers oral history project several years ago. The two teamed up to apply for a Community Culture & Heritage Projects grant from HumanitiesDC to produce a companion guide for the Heritage Wall. Local resident Ms. Grimstead volunteered with the project team. The three worked together for one year doing research, conducting roughly 11 interviews with participants, collecting text submissions from participants, and designing the book. Ms. Herman and Ms. Mills Trice presented the final product at the HumanitiesDC Community Showcase at the Anacostia Arts Center on April 10, 2025.

The book is available to read free online at https://www.michellelisaherman.com/fort-totten-and-lamond-riggs-project. Copies of the book will be given to local organizations, and a few copies will be available for viewing at the Lamond-Riggs Library soon. Books may also be purchased at-cost (the cost of printing) through Blurb.

The project team is finishing up work with the People’s Archive to house the oral histories at the DC Public Library. The oral histories will eventually be publicly available at https://digdc.dclibrary.org.

Existing interviews from Ms. Mills Trice’s Fort Totten Storytellers are available at https://digdc.dclibrary.org/do/cd3a1f05-f5d1-4a08-9a7e-02cc55869d02.

I am looking forward to listening to the oral histories from the tapestry project once that work is completed. It was such a treat to be able to see the finished book at the community showcase and talk to other teams doing incredible projects across the city. (Seriously, people are doing really interesting, culturally rich work all over the city supported by HumanitiesDC).

The Heritage Wall deserved an equally beautiful companion piece, and the project team delivered. Kudos to Ms. Herman, Ms. Mills, Trice, and Ms. Grimstead for their wonderful contribution capturing the history and people of our local neighborhoods.