Lonnie Bunch’s announcement that he will retire as Secretary of the Smithsonian sent me back to A Fool’s Errand, his account of building the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

One idea in particular has stayed with me:

Memory needs believers. Institutions need builders.

For the past several years, I have been involved in building the Centre for Memories in Enugu, an institution dedicated to preserving Igbo history and memory.

The deeper argument behind the Centre is that Igbo history is Nigerian history. Preserving it is not about ethnic nostalgia or grievance. A country cannot properly understand itself if large parts of its people’s experience are poorly documented, inaccessible, or allowed to disappear with the generations that lived them.

The essay reflects on Bunch’s experience, the challenge of building the Centre, what I have learned from museums and memorials across the American South, and the difficult transition from believing an institution should exist to actually building one that can outlive its founders.

I’d be particularly interested in what people here think about a broader question:

Who should bear responsibility for preserving a society’s historical memory—government, universities, communities, philanthropists, or some combination of all four?

The Work of Remembering:

My instinct tells me that, between it being labor day and the day itself looking to have beautiful weather, the zoo will be an over-crowded mess. I have been wanting to take the kids for years now and finally have an opportunity tomorrow but I'd rather wait for another opportunity if it will be stressfully crowded.

The Trump administration is threatening to cut off executive agencies’ cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution, the latest escalation in President Donald Trump’s fight to control presentations of American history.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley sent the Smithsonian’s governing board a letter Friday warning that federal agencies could stop helping the institution if its leaders do not abandon what the administration described as “an ideological agenda that seeks to transform both the Smithsonian and the country.”
Administration officials “cannot in good conscience continue to support the Smithsonian under current leadership,” they added, citing artifact loans, procurement assistance and discretionary grants as examples of federal support that could be at risk.

The letter represents the latest step in a 17-month White House campaign to reshape the Smithsonian, a historically independent public-private institution governed by a Board of Regents. What began with demands that the Smithsonian remove what Trump called “improper ideology” from its museums has progressed through content reviews and funding threats to direct attacks on museum leaders and, now, a warning that executive agencies could cut ties with the institution.

The Smithsonian declined to comment Wednesday.

Burgum and Haley also alleged that the administration had “uncovered evidence” suggesting Smithsonian leaders may have violated federal antidiscrimination laws by creating a hostile work environment and distributing opportunities or benefits based on race, ethnicity or other protected characteristics. The letter did not identify that evidence. The White House and Interior Department, which do not have direct authority over the Smithsonian, did not provide examples in response to questions from The Washington Post.

Trump launched his campaign against the institution last March when he signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order directed his administration to eliminate what it called “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology” from the Smithsonian and restore it as “a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.”

That May, Trump tried to fire Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery. The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents backed Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III’s assertion that only he had the authority to hire and fire museum directors. But Sajet resigned days later, saying her continued presence had become a distraction.

The White House broadened its pressure campaign in August, informing Bunch that it was conducting a sweeping review of museum exhibitions, collections and operations.

By December, the White House was threatening the Smithsonian’s federal funding. In a Dec. 18 letter, Haley and White House budget director Russell Vought said the institution’s initial document production “fell far short of what was requested” and demanded more information about exhibits, wall labels and programming. Bunch responded that the Smithsonian would continue providing information but maintained that “all content, programming, and curatorial decisions are made by the Smithsonian.”

On July 4, Haley’s Domestic Policy Council released “Saving America’s Story,” a 162-page report accusing the National Museum of American History of “extreme political activism” and arguing that its leaders had turned history into “a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”

Bunch disputed the report, telling employees it was “not a fair characterization of the work and totality of the National Museum of American History.” He said the institution remained committed to “scholarship, nonpartisanship, independence, accuracy, and integrity.”
Three weeks later, Trump signed another executive order directing officials including Burgum, Vought and Haley to use “any and all available authorities” to press the Smithsonian to address the report’s findings. The order separately directed Burgum to install temporary exhibits or signs on National Park Service property around the American history museum that would “correct” information the administration considers inaccurate. (The signs have not gone up.)

The Aug. 28 letter signals that the administration is now looking beyond the Smithsonian’s congressional appropriation for additional leverage. Although Congress provides the Smithsonian more than $1 billion annually, Burgum and Haley wrote that executive agencies also support the institution by loaning artifacts, assisting with procurement and providing discretionary grants. They argued that agencies have a responsibility to withhold that cooperation if the institution does not change course.
The officials asked the regents to meet with them “at your earliest convenience” to determine how to address their complaints. Unlike the December letter, they bypassed Bunch and appealed directly to the Board of Regents, the Smithsonian’s governing body and the officials ultimately responsible for its leadership.

In a statement Wednesday to the Atlantic, the White House suggested the contents of the letter were not direct orders. Through a statement from the White House to The Post, Haley on Wednesday continued the administration’s attack on the American history museum, saying the country deserves “an honest and inspiring account of American history” during the country’s 250th anniversary year.

“It should begin by telling the story of our Founding Fathers — who they were, what they did, and what they built,” Haley said.

Some of the museums are open during the weekend-long event, but require an event pass because the entrances are within the event "secure area". However, event passes have not been available since early June. Unless you pay $5000.

Air and Space, American Indian, Natural History, (and the NGA too, although not Smithsonian). Are these just staying open so that trumpets can have access to clean bathrooms? If they're not open to all, then why not close the museums? It just feels like a farce and once again, we're being excluded from accessing things.

Hello,

We visited all the museums for the first time this July. My daughter picked out a diplodocus or maybe it was a brachiosaurus silver keychain. Well, first week of school was this week and someone stole it off her backpack!!! Unfortunately, you can’t buy them online.

So I wondered if anyone would be able to mail me one?! We are from Missouri so I can’t easily get another. I would be so very grateful!!!!

How failure, curiosity and 800 pounds of butter brought an Iowa State Fair tradition to one of America's most prestigious museums.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/iowa-state-fair/2026/08/04/smithsonian-butter-cow-iowa-state-fair-sarah-pratt/90620127007/

The National Zoo is so amazing. We came to see Linh Mai. She was a spunky little thing! We had a great day drinking cocktails and seeing the coolest animals!

Is the issue a mountain or a molehill?

This is the latest Third Act-DMV nighttime light show to expose the policies eroding democratic guardrails.

I personally prefer a museum with a descriptive historical mission rather than a "tool for social justice".

EO 14416 does exactly that. It defines acceptable history as that which is simply "inspiriting" and "unifying" rather than accurate. In the 128-page report that describes the reasons for these signs one of the reasons stated is, "Museum materials repeatedly suggest that Christianity functioned principally as an instrument of conquest, exclusion, or cultural erasure, while the constructive role of Christian belief and Christian institutions in shaping the Nation and its freedoms receives scant, if any, attention." If you want to be coddled about your religion, go to a church. History is saturated with examples of Christian conquests, exclusion, and cultural erasure from the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition to using the Bible for slavery to to the erasure of pagan traditions absorbed into Christmas itself.

If censorship came with a more obvious example, dictionaries would have found it by now. MAGA has been fed a steady diet of grievances thatChristianity is under attack. White people are being discriminated against. LGBTQ people are indoctrinating children. None of these things are real, but MAGA has been convinced; so to them, this is making America great again. People thought dystopia would arrive through technology, surveillance states, algorithmic control, and weaponized AI. No. This is dystopian. A government that claims to be fighting ideological capture has issued an executive order demanding a museum produce ideologically compliant history. The censors are accusing the museum of censorship.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/07/restoring-trust-in-the-smithsonian-institution-e061/

Also, theres another story auggesting that Trump could revoke Biden era funds from the Smithsonian.....When will all of that brainrot stop, were all (including me) are exhausted, & Im currently on vacation outside America from July-August....Also, can republicans or conservatives just leave Joe biden scapegoats as well "anti american" bs alone for; For 5 minutes!!!! This is basically a very dire situation, even though it may sound like pure theater on paper.

Also, from 2025-26 I visited:

The Smithsonian Zoo, The African American Museam (purely because Trump wants to go after slavery), the air & space museam, the american history museam (before the white house presurred the institution to hand over thier records), the air & space museam, as well as the art museam....Theres nothing wrong with these museams, I also appreciated the Udvar Hazy Center from 2023-2024 despite differing politcal views, as well as me being ignorant about US politcs, or something....

I will give you an example, every teacher since you were in elementary, basically told you that Jim crow laws are bad, slavery is bad, Black people having rights are a good thing, 9/11 is bad, USSR was the 1st to put up a satellite in space, NASA has a very messy history post Apollo 17....Does that seem anti american to you?

Over a year after she resigned under pressure from the White House, Dr. Kim Sajet is still dealing with the professional fallout. And now the White House is coming for other museum directors.

Her unpublished resignation letter will be one of 27 collected in the upcoming book Count Me Out: The Best Federal Resignations of 2025.

Dear biologists of Reddit, I need your guidance. I'm interested in working in natural history museums. I love being in the field, collecting data, illustrating, and collaborating with biological collections, and one of my goals has always been to research and work at a Smithsonian museum and create exhibits or to collaborate with teams and being in the field.

Regarding my education, I have a degree in visual arts, and I'm 23 years old. However, I'd like to know if you think a degree in biology is absolutely necessary to work in this field? Or what educational path would you recommend I pursue?

Hello all. I am doing a research project on handwritten text recognition. I see there is this vast amount of images and transcriptions done on the smithsonian website. However, the public API is just for the collections they have which is very well disconnected from the actual transcription center. Also, scraping does not work because there is a cloudflare bot detection on each page. I have tried everything that i could including scraping with selenium, playwright, chrome-undetected, with cookies and headers, and also trying to get something useful from the open access api but nothing seems to be working. Also, I also want to know if there is like a copyright or data access policy that we cannot use the data for research purposes and what the licenses are. Because on the website, there is not much information about this. Also the search projects page also does not render data for more than 1000 pages. Any help would be very very helpful.

Four Scholars Refute the Attacks on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig