#smithsonian-institution — Public Fediverse posts

Hirshhorn Museum’s revamped sculpture garden will feature new acquisitions by Mark Grotjahn, Lauren Halsey and more – The Art Newspaper https://www.allforgardening.com/1676345/hirshhorn-museums-revamped-sculpture-garden-will-feature-new-acquisitions-by-mark-grotjahn-lauren-halsey-and-more-the-art-newspaper/ #acquisitions #dc #garden #gardener #gardening #HirshhornMuseumAndSculptureGarden #Museums&Heritage #PublicArt #SmithsonianInstitution #washington

Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant Guidelines Take Political Turn Under Trump – ProPublica

Trump Administration

Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump

Former Institute of Museum and Library Services leaders from both political parties expressed concern that the new funding guidelines could encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American history.

by Jaimie Seaton for ProPublica

February 6, 2026, 10:30 am

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

A library in rural Alaska needed help providing free Wi-Fi and getting kids to read. A children’s museum in Washington wanted to expand its Little Science Lab. And a World War I museum in Missouri had a raft of historic documents it needed to digitize. They received funding from a little-known federal agency before the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to dismantle it last year.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is now accepting applications for its 2026 grant cycle. But this time, it has unusually specific criteria.

In cover letters accompanying the applications, the institute said it “particularly welcomes” projects that align with President Donald Trump’s vision for America.

These would include those that foster an appreciation for the country “through uplifting and positive narratives,” the agency writes, citing an executive order that attacks the Smithsonian Institution for its “divisive, race-centered ideology.” (Trump has said the museum focused too much on “how bad slavery was.”) The agency also points to an executive order calling for the end of “the anti-Christian weaponization of government” and one titled Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again.

The solicitation marks a stark departure for the agency, whose guidelines were previously apolitical and focused on merit.

Former agency leaders from both political parties, as well as those of library, historical and museum associations, expressed concern that funded projects could encourage a more constrained or distorted view of American history. Some also feared that by accepting grants, institutions would open themselves up to scrutiny and control, like the administration’s wide-ranging audit of Smithsonian exhibits “to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals.”

The new guidelines are “chilling,” said Giovanna Urist, who served as a senior program officer at the agency from 2021 to 2023. “I think that we just need to look at what’s happening with the Smithsonian to know that the administration has a very specific goal in mind when it comes to controlling the voice of organizations and museums across the country.”

An agency spokesperson told ProPublica it is not unusual for the institute to publish directors’ letters with grant applications, and that this one informs readers “about this Administration’s thematic emphases in the semi-quincentennial year.” He did not comment on criticisms that those letters insert political themes into a historically nonpartisan program.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, IMLS is working to revitalize our cultural institutions, urging less traditional applicants to consider working with us, and to promote civic pride and a deep sense of belonging among all Americans,” he said, adding that any institution that “meets programmatic requirements and goals” outlined in the funding opportunity “will receive all due consideration and undergo peer review.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant Guidelines Take Political Turn Under Trump — ProPublica

You Can See a Swirling Sculpture Made of 8,000 Books at a Library in Prague – Smithsonian Magazine

Trending Today

You Can See a Swirling Sculpture Made of 8,000 Books at a Library in Prague

Officials are managing an influx of tourists coming to see “Idiom,” a seemingly infinite tunnel of books by the artist Matej Krén, at the Municipal Library

By Christian Thorsberg, Correspondent January 16, 2026

Get our newsletter!

Nearly 30 years after a dizzying sculpture fashioned from books was first installed at the Prague Municipal Library in the Czech Republic, literature lovers on TikTok and Instagram have turned the artwork into a viral fascination and unexpected tourism hotspot.

Idiom, created by Slovak artist Matej Krén, features roughly 8,000 books stacked into a tower. Mirrors placed on the top and bottom give the illusion of infinite length, and a raindrop-shaped entryway invites visitors to peek inside the wormhole—almost like they’re literally disappearing into a good book.

“The Idiom is meant to symbolize the infinity of knowledge,” according to a description of the sculpture on the library’s website. “[Books] are like bricks to [Krén], but they contain much more information, destinies, stories and knowledge. He puts them into the form of dwellings: primitive on the one hand, infinitely intelligent on the other.”

The installation made its debut at the Sao Paulo International Biennial in 1995, and in 1996 it was brought to Prague. It was first exhibited for a summer at the Jiri Svestka Gallery, which in the 1950s was a communist warehouse of banned books, before moving to its permanent home at the library in 1998.

For years, Idiom stood as little more than a familiar fixture, with its fame generally limited to the regular library-goers in the Czech capital. But beginning in 2022, the sculpture gained renown by going viral on BookTok, the pocket of TikTok dedicated to discussions of books and writing. Algorithms on Instagram similarly pushed the sculpture to the forefront of feeds.

“Kids that were in Prague looking into their phones suddenly saw a cool thing that they liked and they wanted to see it as well,” Czech journalist Janek Rubeš told Radio Prague International in 2023. “And as it is in today’s world, everyone wants to have the same picture or same video, because it looks cool and they can get likes.”

Quick fact: Idiom on the cover of Science

A photo of the sculpture was featured on the magazine’s cover in January 2011.In that issue, researchers analyzed a massive collection of 5.2million books to study cultural trends.

Today, librarians and local tourism officials are bewildered at the foot traffic the sculpture generates. During peak travel seasons—such as Christmas and Easter—more than 1,000 people each day endure wait times of more than two hours to snap a photograph.

“We’ll have to deal with it in some way, because working with tourist crowds is a completely different service from that we have provided up to now,” Lenka Hanzlikova, a spokesperson for the library, tells Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Most readers laugh about it and say it’s bizarre, but we have had people who wanted to return books and joined the queue.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: You Can See a Swirling Sculpture Made of 8,000 Books at a Library in Prague

Trump eyes site near National Mall for ‘Garden of American Heroes’ – The Art Newspaper https://www.allforgardening.com/1567961/trump-eyes-site-near-national-mall-for-garden-of-american-heroes-the-art-newspaper/ #dc #DonaldTrump #garden #monuments #Museums&Heritage #NationalMall #PublicArt #SmithsonianInstitution #USPolitics #washington

The Smithsonian Faces New Pressure to Submit to Trump’s Will

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/arts/design/smithsonian-trump-pressure.html

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, c.1920s - BS Reynolds Postcard

https://www.ebid.net/uk/for-sale/smithsonian-institution-washington-dc-c-1920s-bs-reynolds-postcard-235444068.htm

#WashingtonDC #Smithsonian #SmithsonianInstitution

Is this Cape Cod’s favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Bracket results. https://www.diningandcooking.com/2404858/is-this-cape-cods-favorite-thanksgiving-side-dish-bracket-results/ #cape #CapeCod #Cod #Cooking #CookingU0026Recipes #events #holiday #HolidayMarketplaceHub #holidays #HolidaysU0026SeasonalEvents #HUB #Institution #Marketplace #Overall #OverallPositive #positive #Recipes #seasonal #Smithsonian #SmithsonianInstitution #thanksgiving #ThanksgivingAppetizes #ThanksgivingDesserts #ThanksgivingFood #ThanksgivingRecipes #ThanksgivingSides #u0026

Trump smashed the U.S. Capitol and the White House, piercing the soul of the nation as Joe Biden predicted

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/voices/trump-pierces-national-soul

𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬

✧ Nobel Prize in Physics ✧

The Nobel Prize in Physics is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to those who have made the most outstanding contributions to humanity through physics. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious award that a scientist can receive in that field. One of the five Nobel Prizes established ...

#Nobel #Physics #AlfredNobel #SmithsonianInstitution #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian Is Creating a Digital Archive of Exhibits – School Library Journal

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian Is Creating a Digital Archive of Exhibits

by Kara Yorio, Oct 03, 2025 | Filed in News & Features

The all-volunteer initiative is documenting exhibits at the more than 20 Smithsonian Institution museums and the National Zoo in response to the Trump administration’s announcement that museums’ contents would be subject to review and revision to align with the president’s directive.

When retired Virginia school librarian Mary Anne O’Rourke learned about a project to digitally archive the Smithsonian Institution museums, she immediately wanted to volunteer.

“I spent my career teaching children how to research and look up facts, how to know facts from distortions, and what were good sources? The Smithsonian has been our greatest source,” says O’Rourke, who was a preK–8 librarian for 11 years after being a classroom teacher and working at the Smithsonian Visitor Information Center.

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian is an all-volunteer effort to document everything on display at the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, the National Zoo, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Volunteers take photos and videos of exhibits in this crowdsourced archiving endeavor. Organizers call it “Crowd to Cloud” and plan to make the information accessible to the media and public.

The initiative is a response to an August letter sent by the Trump administration to the Smithsonian Institution secretary stating that exhibits were subject to review and revision in an effort to “reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story.” The letter went on to say it was an effort to “ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives.”

After learning of the administration’s intentions, Georgetown University history professors Chandra Manning and James A. Millward wanted to take action. Inspired by Save Our Signs—which seeks to document signs and information at National Parks that may be removed by the administration—Manning and Millward sent an email to the university’s history department saying they wanted to find a way to document the Smithsonian exhibits. Upon receiving the email, Jessica Dickinson Goodman, a graduate research assistant at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, immediately proposed possible ways of achieving the goal and offered to help coordinate. Not only is the dual master’s student pursuing a degree in Global, International, and Comparative History, the Smithsonian also holds a special place in her personal history.

“When I was in college, my partner and I were long distance, and we would meet up every other weekend in D.C. and go to the Smithsonian,” Dickinson Goodman says. “They are very personal to me. They’re a big part of my sense of my country, and my sense of my field, and my sense of pride in what it means to be an American—that we can produce these amazing free institutions to the public and to the world. And these institutions hold within them a huge amount of human wisdom and American and world experience that deserve to be accessible.”

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/story/Citizen-Historians-Smithsonian-creating-digital-Archive-Exhibits

#2025 #America #CitizenHistorians #DigitalArchive #DonaldTrump #Education #Exhibits #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #SchoolLibraryJournal #Science #SLJ #Smithsonian #SmithsonianInstitution #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

Inside the Battle for The Smithsonian – Vanity Fair

CULTURE WAR

Inside the Battle for The Smithsonian

Donald Trump’s unprecedented measures to take control of The Smithsonian Institution have rattled staffers, enraged artists, and even put the future of its vast collection in doubt.

By Manuel Roig-Franzia, September 29, 2025

The look on the curator’s face said it all, and the intensity of the conversation was escalating by the moment. Confusion to worry. Worry to dread.

“I want to do this,” the curator said. “But I don’t think I can do this. I’m worried that I might get in trouble.”

On any other day, the curator’s sit-down with a high-ranking Smithsonian official about an exhibition plan would have been routine—the idea wasn’t particularly controversial. But not on this day in late March. President Donald Trump’s White House had just issued an executive order, a mere 1,100 words or so but plenty enough to shake the world’s largest museum and research institution to its core, a document titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

The order lambasted The Smithsonian, saying it had “in recent years come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” It went on to order Vice President JD Vance, who sits on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to seek out and “remove improper ideology” and to take a hand in reshaping content at the popular 21-museum complex as well as its research centers and the National Zoo. The Trump administration, the order said, would work to ensure The Smithsonian would transmit an “uplifting” message to remind “Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing.”

The order felt almost Orwellian to some.

“It taps into people’s basest fears,” a high-ranking official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about retribution, told me.

Across the breadth of the vast Smithsonian network, similar reactions were taking place. Officials were beginning to doubt their decisions. Might they be self-editing to appease a vengeful president? Might self-editing morph into self-sabotage? Might The Smithsonian, which gets a large percentage of its budget from the federal government but prides itself on independence, become a political propaganda tool?

“The whole thing is fucked up,” said artist Mika Rottenberg, whose work will be featured at The Smithsonian in November. “So many things are fucked up.”

Continue/Read Original Article: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/inside-the-battle-for-the-smithsonian

#2025 #America #Battle #Censorship #DonaldTrump #Education #EraseHistory #Health #History #InsideSmithsonian #KennedyCenter #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #RemoveHistory #Resistance #Science #Smithsonian #SmithsonianInstitution #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #VanityFair

What Travelers Need to Know About the Possible Government Shutdown

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/travel/government-shutdown-airports-national-parks.html

Democratic senators urge Smithsonian to resist White House attempts to ‘bully the institution’ : NPR

Culture

Four Democratic senators urge Smithsonian to resist White House attempts to ‘bully the institution’

Updated September 5, 2025, 3:32 PM ET

By Anastasia Tsioulcas

In a letter sent Friday to the Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and three other Democratic senators urged Bunch to resist any attempts by the White House to “bully the institution to go against its mission and values.”

The letter from the four Senate Democrats comes weeks after President Trump called the Smithsonian and museums “all over the Country essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’” On Truth Social, he said that the Smithsonian presents a narrative of the country’s history that is about “how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

The White House also released an unsigned memo last month specifically criticizing 22 exhibitions, live programs and other materials at the Smithsonian, titled, “President Trump Is Right About The Smithsonian.” NPR has reported that some of the exhibitions were temporary and are no longer on view.

The coauthors of Friday’s letter are three senators with ties to the institution: Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., both current members of the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents; and Sen. Jeffrey A. Merkley, D-Ore., the ranking member of an appropriations subcommittee which holds jurisdiction over the Smithsonian’s federal funding. The letter was provided to NPR by Padilla’s office.

Within the letter, the senators asserted that oversight of the Smithsonian rests with Congress from its founding, not the White House.

“As you know,” the senators wrote in part, “the Smithsonian Institution is a national treasure, and it is also a public-private partnership managed as an independent federal trust. It is not an executive agency over which the President can exert unilateral control over its historical, scientific or artistic content. The Institution was created by Congress to care for the bequest of James Smithson and to found ‘an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.’ In recent years, it has been funded with a relatively even split of private donations to support its programming, and federal appropriations provided by Congress to support its core operations including the maintenance of the facilities, further underscoring its unique status.”

The letter continued: “Congress assigned the trust responsibility for this gift of private property to the United States and its ongoing mission to the Smithsonian Board of Regents, not to the executive branch.”

In a written statement sent to NPR on Friday afternoon, Lindsey Halligan, a White House official tasked with reviewing the Smithsonian, said: “The Smithsonian is not an autonomous institution, as 70% of its funding comes from taxpayers. While we acknowledge the Smithsonian’s recognition of its own programmatic failures and is moving toward critical introspection, it cannot credibly audit itself. By definition, an ‘audit’ must be neutral and objective. The American taxpayers deserve nothing less, which is why the White House will ensure the audit is conducted impartially. This is non-negotiable.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Democratic senators urge Smithsonian to resist White House attempts to ‘bully the institution’ : NPR

#2025 #America #bullying #Democrats #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #NationalPublicRadio #NPR #Opinion #Politics #Resist #Resistance #Science #Senators #SmithsonianInstitution #SmithsonianMuseums #SupportSmithsonian #Technology #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WhiteHouse

Smithsonian secretary reaffirms institution’s ‘independence’ in response to White House’s demand for review – ABC News

Smithsonian secretary reaffirms institution’s ‘independence’ in response to White House’s demand for review

Sec. Lonnie Bunch said that the institution’s “independence is paramount.”

By Elizabeth Thomas and Deena Zaru, September 5, 2025, 12:31 PM

White House wants Smithsonian exhibits to fit Trump’s view of history: Official
The White House plans to conduct a wide-ranging review of the Smithsonian Institution’s museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III asserted the Smithsonian Institution’s control over its programming and content this week in a letter addressed to the White House after the Trump administration demanded a review of the institution’s exhibits, a Smithsonian official confirmed to ABC News.

The White House announced last month that it plans to conduct a wide-ranging review of the Smithsonian’s museum exhibitions, materials and operations to ensure they align with President Donald Trump’s view of American history.

In the Sept. 3 letter, Bunch responded to Trump’s demand that his administration review the Smithsonian’s exhibitions, materials and operations. It also said that the Smithsonian, which is the world’s largest museum complex, will remain control over programming and content and that it will do its own review of exhibits, material and operations, the official told ABC News.

Following its internal review, Bunch said he will brief the White House on its findings, but the Smithsonian will not be sending a formal report to the White House, the Smithsonian official added. The museum’s review of exhibits is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

Asked about the Smithsonian’s internal review and whether the White House will insist on being involved, a White House official told ABC News that the Smithsonian “cannot credibly audit itself.”

“The Smithsonian is not an autonomous institution, as 70% of its funding comes from taxpayers. While we acknowledge the Smithsonian’s recognition of its own programmatic failures and is moving toward critical introspection, it cannot credibly audit itself,” White House official Lindsey Halligan said. “By definition, an ‘audit’ must be neutral and objective. The American taxpayers deserve nothing less, which is why the White House will ensure the audit is conducted impartially. This is non-negotiable.”

ABC News reached out to the Smithsonian but a request for comment was not immediately returned.

Bunch, who met with Trump at the White House on Aug. 28 over lunch, referenced the Smithsonian’s response to the White House and his conversations with Trump during the lunch in a Sept. 3 letter to the institution’s employees, which was obtained by ABC News.

In the letter, Bunch told Smithsonian employees that he communicated to the president during their Aug. 28 meeting that the Smithsonian’s “independence is paramount.” He also told employees that the Institution remains committed to telling the “American story” and “will always be, a place that welcomes all Americans and the world.”

Asked about the Smithsonian’s internal review and whether the White House will insist on being involved, a White House official told ABC News that the Smithsonian “cannot credibly audit itself.”

“The Smithsonian is not an autonomous institution, as 70% of its funding comes from taxpayers. While we acknowledge the Smithsonian’s recognition of its own programmatic failures and is moving toward critical introspection, it cannot credibly audit itself,” White House official Lindsey Halligan said. “By definition, an ‘audit’ must be neutral and objective. The American taxpayers deserve nothing less, which is why the White House will ensure the audit is conducted impartially. This is non-negotiable.”

ABC News reached out to the Smithsonian but a request for comment was not immediately returned.

Bunch, who met with Trump at the White House on Aug. 28 over lunch, referenced the Smithsonian’s response to the White House and his conversations with Trump during the lunch in a Sept. 3 letter to the institution’s employees, which was obtained by ABC News.

In the letter, Bunch told Smithsonian employees that he communicated to the president during their Aug. 28 meeting that the Smithsonian’s “independence is paramount.” He also told employees that the Institution remains committed to telling the “American story” and “will always be, a place that welcomes all Americans and the world.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Smithsonian secretary reaffirms institution’s ‘independence’ in response to White House’s demand for review – ABC News

#2025 #ABCNews #America #Books #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Reading #Resistance #Science #SecretaryLonnieBunch #SmithsonianInstitution #SmithsonianMuseums #Technology #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WashingtonDC #WhiteHouse

Trump’s attacks on the ‘Blacksonian’ have a history in a century-old myth | The Guardian

Trump’s attacks on the ‘Blacksonian’ have a history in a century-old myth

By Saida Grundy

The United Daughters of the Confederacy set out to make slavery respectable again by promoting ‘the lost cause’

Sat 23 Aug 2025 07.00 EDT

It should surprise no one that former cast members from reality shows that ran for more than 15 seasons are running out of new material.

Days ago, Donald Trump, former star of NBC’s The Apprentice and current US president, posted a lengthy Truth Social rant in which he (again) threatened the country’s leading cultural institutions to adhere to his political ideology. The target was one he has had in his crosshairs before – the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) – which Trump called “OUT OF CONTROL” in his post. “Everything discussed [in NMAAHC exhibits] is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was,” Trump unloaded. “WOKE IS BROKE,” he continued through his customary use of all caps and misplaced capitalization of common nouns. “We have the HOTTEST Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums.”

The tirade left many wondering what exactly Trump saw as the upsides of slavery, but also where they had previously heard this recycled talking point. The comment seemed to echo comments made just days prior by his fellow reality show bully Jillian Michaels, a former trainer on NBC’s The Biggest Loser, the weight-loss competition show that launched alongside The Apprentice in 2004. Michaels had been making her rounds in media and public appearances, rebranding from verbally abusive fat shamer to Maga influencer.

On CNN’s NewsNight, the host Abby Phillips moderated a roundtable discussion on Trump’s months-long overreach into cultural institutions such as the Kennedy Center and the NMAAHC. Michaels hijacked the conversation into a lament about slavery’s prominence in the massively popular museum’s displays on US history. “[Trump] is not whitewashing slavery, he’s not,” Michaels said. “You cannot tie slavery to just one race, which is what every single exhibit [at NMAAHC] does.” Turning towards the representative Ritchie Torres, who was seated beside her, Michaels unloaded popular far-right talking points. “Do you realize that only less than 2% of white Americans owned slaves?” she continued. “Do you realize slavery is thousands of years old? Do you know who was the first race who tried to end slavery?”

Torres’s interjections that slavery was a system of white supremacy, not a set of individual white acts, went unaddressed by the TV star. (From 20% to 50% of the white population in southern US states owned enslaved people, and all white people nationwide benefited from slavery’s racial order. Michael’s false claims prompted Phillips to later post a public correction.)

The tirade was an escalation of Trump’s previous open declarations to “restore truth and sanity to American history”, an effort to overhaul exhibits and installations across federally operated museums and galleries and politicize their content, with the NMAAHC locked squarely in the administration’s sights for what it called “corrosive ideology”. Previous edicts about the museum, lovingly nicknamed “The Blacksonian” by many of its patrons, had not specifically identified slavery as the White House’s gripe. But Trump’s Truth Social post more directly reflected a return to a century-old tactic to minimize chattel slavery as “not that bad”.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Trump’s attacks on the ‘Blacksonian’ have a history in a century-old myth | Saida Grundy | The Guardian

#2025 #America #AmericanMuseums #Blacksonian #Books #CivilWar #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #OldMyths #Opinion #Politics #Reading #Resistance #Science #Slavery #SmithsonianInstitution #TheGuardian #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedDaughtersOfTheConfederacy #UnitedStates

Changing the Smithsonian doesn’t erase slavery and the racial wealth gap – The Washington Post

Changing the Smithsonian doesn’t erase slavery and the racial wealth gap

There isn’t enough museum space to represent the full extent of the brutality that millions had to endure.

August 22, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDT, Yesterday at 6:00 a.m. EDT, 5 min

Column by Michelle Singletary

The legacy of slavery — and the decades of theft associated with it both before and after it ended — cannot be erased from American history.

Nor should it be minimized.

One might assume this didn’t need to be said. But comments made by President Donald Trump suggest otherwise.

Trump this week accused the Smithsonian Institution of being “WOKE” and too focused on slavery, using his platform to diminish itsimpact and criticize exhibits, including those at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

I am a descendant of enslaved people, and there isn’t enough museum space to represent the full extent of the brutalitythat millions had to endure.

In a 10-part award-winning series that I wrote five years ago, I aimed to dispel common misconceptions about race and inequality.

Sincerely, Michelle

Yes, Black Americans are entitled to reparations. We’ve earned them.

In one part, I recounted how my grandmother, Big Mama, told me about her enslaved great-grandmother, Leah Drumwright.

While caring for her own infant, Leah was forced to nurse the baby of the White woman who owned her. The woman made another demand, one that still fills me with grief and anger.

Leah was told she could nurse her own baby only on her right breast. Theleft was strictly reserved for the White baby. The woman’s rationale: The left breast, being closer to the heart, produced healthier milk, and therefore, the best milk had to be given to the White child.

One evening, exhausted from cleaning and cooking for the plantation owners, Leah was caught in the kitchen feeding her child on her left breast.

Fueled by rage, the White mother struck Leah across the face. A beating followed the slap.

I want to revisit part of the “Sincerely, Michelle” series because understanding our history with slavery is crucial to addressing economic disparities that still exist for Black Americans.

The institution that stripped Leah of basic human rights also seeded the discriminatory policies that systematically denied Blacks opportunity.

After the Civil War, many newlyfreed people purchased land, only to see it stolen. Prosperous Black towns were looted and burned. Blacks were denied the right to vote and were prohibited from living in certain neighborhoods.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Changing the Smithsonian doesn’t erase slavery and the racial wealth gap. – The Washington Post

#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #RacialWeathGap #Racism #Resistance #Science #Slavery #SmithsonianInstitution #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

Trump administration’s anti-woke campaign targets Smithsonian museums | Trump administration | The Guardian

Trump administration’s anti-woke campaign targets Smithsonian museums

Exclusive: White House flags seven institutions including those for Latino, African and Asian art for review, document shows…

Joseph Gedeon in Washington, Wed 20 Aug 2025 20.36 EDT

Amid the Donald Trump administration’s heavy-handed review of Smithsonian museums, the Guardian has seen a document compiled by the White House that details examples of how the widely visited cultural institutions have overly negative portrayals of US history.

The document, based on public submissions shared with the administration, points to what it says are problematic exhibits at seven different museums, including a Benjamin Franklin exhibit that links his scientific achievements to his ownership of enslaved people and a film about George Floyd’s murder that it says mischaracterizes the police.

“President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable,” a White House official said. “Until we get info from the Smithsonian in response to our letter, we can’t verify the numbers of artifacts that have been removed because the Smithsonian has removed them on their own.”

Trump announced the initiative on Truth Social earlier this week, writing: “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been.”

The seven museums that have so far been flagged for review include the National Museum of American History, National Museum of the American Latino, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of African Art, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Museum of Asian Art.

The administration argues exhibits at these museums focus excessively on oppression rather than American achievements. At the National Museum of American History, the document flagged the ¡Presente! Latino history exhibition for allegedly promoting an “anti-American agenda” by examining colonization effects and depicting the US as stealing territory from Mexico in 1848.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Trump administration’s anti-woke campaign targets Smithsonian museums | Trump administration | The Guardian

#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Politics #Resistance #Science #SmithsonianInstitution #TheGuardian #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

From @CNN 5 Things AM August 20, 2025:
#news #CNN #censorship #resist #authoritarianism #whitewash #revisionist #Smithsonian #SmithsonianMuseum #SmithsonianInstitution #NineteenEightyFour

Opinion | American history can be painful. The Smithsonian should embrace it. – The Washington Post

Good foreign policy depends on good information

Readers also discuss a new way to address Confederate memorials, socialism in New York City and the Smithsonian.

Regarding the Aug. 13 news article “Rubio recasts beliefs with cuts to human rights reports”:

I oversaw the production of the State Department’s annual human rights reports from 2009 to 2012. For almost 50 years, thousands of career diplomats have participated in the compilation of these reports, which have become the most comprehensive and reliable public assessment of human rights conditions in almost 200 countries.

Mandated by Congress in the 1970s to inform decision-making about foreign aid and trade policies, the reports have become an indispensable resource. Global leaders use them to assess risks where they conduct business. Immigration judges in the United States and elsewhere rely on them when evaluating asylum claims. Civil society activists turn to them for credible information when they operate in places where publishing criticism of government actions leads to official reprisals. Journalists and representatives of humanitarian organizations use them to orient themselves as they begin working in complex environments.

All of these benefits are now being jeopardized by the Trump administration’s decision to slash the comprehensive nature of these reports and to dramatically politicize their content. Good foreign policy depends on good information. That begins with thorough, independent accounting of the state of human rights everywhere.

Weakening this foundation risks blinding us to them. Once the credibility of our reporting is lost, it will be extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Opinion | American history can be painful. The Smithsonian should embrace it. – The Washington Post

#2025 #America #AmericanHistory #DonaldTrump #Health #History #HumanRightsReport #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #MandatedByCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Rubio #Science #SmithsonianInstitution #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #USStateDepartment #UnitedStates

The sweeping #censorship being (illegally) applied by #ExecutiveOrders issued by #DonaldTheDeplorable are attempting to (temporarily) rewrite #history - even at the #SmithsonianInstitution. https://www.express.co.uk/news/us/2094587/Trump-orders-smithsonian-museums-align-content-american-ideals

“#AmericanExceptionalism “ has always been a myth. Now it is a global joke! 😂

#Resist and #DoNotCollaborateWithFascists in #USpol.

Vtt, mä en pysty tähän maailmaan.

"Trumpin hallinto aloittaa museoiden syynäämisen ja haluaa historian vastaavan presidentin näkemystä"

https://yle.fi/a/74-20177183

#Dump #Trump #fasismi #historia #SmithsonianInstitution #Smithsonian #museo #museot #USA #Yhdysvallat #USpol #politiikka #tutkimus #tiede

Trump influence? US museum receives backlash for removing Potus’s impeachment display – Firstpost

The parent organisation of a top-visited history museum in the United States denied that political pressure played a…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #Americanhistory #impeachmentproceedings #Latvia #LV #museumexhibit #NationalMuseumofAmericanHistory #politicalpressure #SmithsonianInstitution #Trumpimpeachment #uspresidentdonaldtrump
https://www.newsbeep.com/36918/

𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬

✧ Silver certificates ✧

Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Coinage Act of 1873, which had effectively plac...

#UnitedStates #FederalReserveNotes #SmithsonianInstitution #LincolnMemorial #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_certificate_(United_States)

#USpol #DEpol #Faschismus
#BPB #SmithsonianInstitution

*👉Verfassungskrise in den USA- in Zukunft auch in Deutschland? 👈*

(20/n)

...#Wahlkampfthema hatten, immer nur die Rechten hinzugewannen; jüngstes Beispiel: der #DeutscheBundestag.

Ich würde viel geben, falsch zu liegen, bedauerlicherweise hat dieses Wunschdenken seit 2016 bereits wiederholt nicht beim #GrossenAmerikanischenExperiment" funktioniert, wie nan täglich in den Nachrichten verfolgen kann.

//

1)
#SmithsonianInstitution...

#USpol #DEpol #Faschismus
#BPB #SmithsonianInstitution

*👉Verfassungskrise in den USA- in absehbarer Zukunft auch in Deutschland? 👈*

(21/n)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/opinion/trump-war-history.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8U4.zdl4.fiKIY56XR9LO&smid=url-share

2)
#BPB:
https://www.bpb.de/die-bpb/ueber-uns/auftrag/51244/erlass-ueber-die-bundeszentrale-fuer-politische-bildung-bpb/

3)
#InsurrectionAct:
https://me.dm/@aletheisthenes/114236470628763337

https://kolektiva.social/@DoomsdaysCW/114197376499146367

4)
#CitizensUnitedVsFEC:

#USpol #DEpol #Faschismus
#BPB #SmithsonianInstitution

*👉Verfassungskrise in den USA- in absehbarer Zukunft auch in Deutschland? 👈*

(22/n)

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/110856116616631495

5)
#Hugenberg:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/113987420992520717

6)
"Rechte Internationale:"
#HeritageFoundation und "Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft" (#NSM):

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/114030377383779400

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/114084175966271343

https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/114083245174013479

7)
#AOC:

*👉Verfassungskrise in den USA...in Deutschland? 👈*

(5/n)

seinen Krieg gegen die Geschichte nicht gewinnen"

"Die wiederholte Beschwörung der #SmithsonianInstitution in Präsidialerlass spiegelt die bekannten Ziele der Rechten wider, die im #Project2025 und anderswo umrissen wurden: Beendigung der angeblichen "Woke"-Agenden zu Rassismus und Geschlecht, Schaffung von "Elternrechten" und Schulwahl und Förderung der Geschichte im Einklang mit den "Werten" der Gründer.

Dem US-Präsidenten zufolge...

@verfassungsblog

#USpol #DEpol #Faschismus
#BPB #SmithsonianInstitution

*👉Verfassungskrise in den USA- in absehbarer Zukunft auch in Deutschland? 👈*

(1/n)

ein 🧵

Ich schreibe viel zu Politik und Geschichte, mit einem US- und DE-Schwerpunkt. Seit 2016 werden die Paralellen zur Zeit vor der #NS-#Machtergreifung am 30. Januar 1933 immer drängender.

Texte der @bpb waren hier in der politischen und historischen Dikussion des Öfteren hilfreich, da..

Ausgangbeitrag:

https://legal.social/@verfassungsblog/114223345806797423

𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬

✧ Continental XI-1430 ✧

The Continental XI-1430 (often identified as the IV-1430) was a liquid-cooled aircraft engine developed in the United States by a partnership between the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) and Continental Motors. It resulted from the USAAC's hyper-engine efforts that started in 1932, but never ent...

#UnitedStates #ContinentalMotors #USAAC #SmithsonianInstitution #Washington #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_XI-1430

Um das globale Netzwerk zu stärken und den Zugang zu Archivmaterial zu verbessern, wurde ein neues Memorandum of Understanding unterzeichnet. Geplant sind u.a. eine Webinar-Reihe, ein internationales Symposium 2026 und die Entwicklung einer digitalen Plattform für die Provenienzforschung
#Provenienzforschung #AsiatischeKunst #InternationaleZusammenarbeit
#NationalMuseumofAsianArt
#SmithsonianInstitution

https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/news-detail/artikel/2025/02/20/fortsetzung-der-zusammenarbeit-von-smithsonian-institution-und-spk-im-bereich-provenienzforschung.html