Smithsonian

Smithsonian Announces Plans to Return Looted, Unethically Sourced Artifacts

Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III announced the museum's intention to be a world leading institution on repatriating artifacts and promoting reconciliation for colonialism through museums. 

Black People at Work, Play and Rest are a Picture of American Democracy

Smithsonian NMAAHC curator Aaron Bryant talks about photographs that tell untold stories about American history and life. 

USF's Aisha Durham Part of Smithsonian Curation Team for Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap

Communications Professor Aisha Durham visited the Smithsonian as a young girl from Virginia, and felt like her African American peers were outsiders to American culture. She now works to highlight the ways that urban Black culture changed America through music, fashion, and other elements of hip hop culture. 

Climate Change Threatens Smithsonian

“We’re kind of in trial and error,” said Ryan Doyle, a facilities manager at the Smithsonian. “It’s about managing water.”

Why Hip Hop Conquered the World: The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap Drops

The new anthology "tells the story of American history from 1979 to 2013 through the eyes of the young Black Americans who changed it profoundly."

National Museum of American History Announces African American History Curatorial Collective

“African American history is inextricably central to U.S. history, and our growing curatorial team forms an essential force in creating innovative, essential interpretive approaches at a time when cascading crises have shown us how race-based disparities continue to exist,” director Anthea Hartig said.

Billie Jean King among those Named to Womens History Museum Board

The council is charged with advising the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents on the location, planning and design of the proposed museum and with helping the institution raise money from private donors.

National Museum of American History Names New Board Leadership

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Board recently elected Enrique Segura, chairman of the board of ENSE Group LLC, and Barbara Franklin, former U.S. secretary of commerce and business executive, to lead its 22-member advisory board. 

The Fog of History Wars

by David W. Blight

Nations have histories, and someone must write and teach them, but the 1990s battle over the National Standards for History remains a warning to all those who try – setting a history curriculum is politics by other means, and the right has always been willing to fight over it.

Fauci Donates Model to Smithsonian’s COVID-19 Collection

Dr. Anthony Fauci's model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a prop in numerous informational sessions since the beginning of the pandemic. Now, the plastic germ will reside in the Smithsonian's collections. 

Historically Speaking: 400 Souls—A Conversation with Ibram Kendi and Keisha N. Blain – Tuesday, 2/2

Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain will join the NMAAHC for a discussion of their new book "400 Souls." 

The Smithsonian Is Collecting Objects From the Capitol Siege

Smithsonian Director Lonnie Bunch III discusses the necessity of preserving evidence of the riot at the Capitol. 

What Americans Don’t Know about Latino History Could Fill a Museum

by Stephen Pitti

"[Senator Mike] Lee’s exaggerations sidestepped every available fact about Latinos in the United States. They caricatured the views of the museum’s supporters, including historians, museum professionals, community leaders and business executives."

Rosie the Riveter Gets Her Due 75 Years After the End of World War II

This month, women war industry workers from the World War II era were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, an honor a dwindling number have survived to enjoy. 

Senator Mike Lee Disregards History While Claiming to Support American Unity

by Matt Chumchal

Senator Mike Lee this week claimed proposed museums dedicated to the history of women and Latino/as in America would foster division by ethnicity and sex. A biology professor shares an experience with the new National Museum of African American History and Culture and argues that the proposed museums are in fact needed to create the understanding needed to forge unity.

'Hyphenated Identity Groups': Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee Blocks Legislation For Latino And Women History Smithsonians

"Claiming 'the last thing we need is to further divide an already divided nation,' Lee blocked proposals to establish the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women's History Museum."

Congress Takes Crucial Step toward Establishing Latino and Women’s History Museums

The proposed museums would follow the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016. 

Smithsonian Archives of American Art Gathers an Oral History of 2020

The National Archives of American Art has been moving aggressively to document artists' responses to the concurrent social traumas of 2020, including the pandemic, police violence and protests, and a tumultuous election campaign. 

A Bold Anthology Shows How R-I-G-H-T and W-R-I-T-E Come Together in Black Poetry

The incoming director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture has published an anthology of Black American poetry that speaks to the ways that the arts and poets in particular have articulated and spread the cause of liberation. 

Where Is the Smithsonian Museum for American Latinos?

by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Ken Salazar

A former Florida Congresswoman and the former Interior Secretary present bipartisan advocacy for an American Latino Museum.