Smithsonian preservation specialists will offer free, one-on-one reviews of family heirlooms in Potomac's Scotland community Friday, Sept. 18, and Saturday, Sept. 19.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is bringing its Hometown Treasures program to the Bette Carol Thomsen Scotland Neighborhood Recreation Center at 7700 Scotland Drive, MoCoShow reported. The visit marks the program's first trip to the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Glenstone Museum and the Juneteenth Scotland Foundation are co-presenting the event.

Visitors may bring up to three items for a professional review with a preservation specialist. The reviews offer guidance on caring for photographs, documents, textiles, military memorabilia and other keepsakes. They are not monetary appraisals. Advance registration is required for the one-on-one sessions.

A Community Expo, open to all without registration, will run alongside the reviews. It includes do-it-yourself preservation workshops, art and quilting demonstrations, oral history demonstrations and hands-on activities for all ages.

"Preservation shouldn't feel like something that only happens behind the walls of a museum," said Renée S. Anderson, head of collections at NMAAHC. "Families can take meaningful steps at home to protect documents, textiles and other objects that matter to them."

Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, according to the museum's ticketing page. Both the reviews and the expo are free. Registration and event details are available at nmaahc.si.edu/events/series/hometown-treasures-capital-region.

Scotland, settled by formerly enslaved people in the decades after the Civil War, is one of Montgomery County's earliest African American communities. Glenstone Museum, located nearby in Potomac, has an ongoing partnership with the neighborhood. That collaboration included the restoration of the Scotland AME Zion Church on Seven Locks Road, completed in 2025.

Montgomery County government promoted the event on its official Facebook page in late August, encouraging residents to bring heirlooms for a free review. Hometown Treasures is the traveling arm of the museum's Save Our African American Treasures initiative, which has brought preservation specialists into communities nationwide since 2008.