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On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution, a behemoth of a research and museum organization that operates more than 20 museum and research centers and is visited by millions of people each year, mainly in Washington DC and New York City. The museums include the National Museum of African Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which Trump name-checked in his executive order. Trump’s executive order instructs Vice-President JD Vance to “eliminate improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian’s museums.
The Smithsonian has already come under scrutiny by Trump and his allies. Earlier this year, the institution was forced to close its diversity office and froze all federal hiring.
But what is the Smithsonian Institute, and why is it important?
What is the Smithsonian Institution?
Envisioned in the 19th century by James Smithson, a British scientist who bequeathed his estate in hopes of establishing an institution to “the increase and diffusion of knowledge”, the Smithsonian Institution had a budget last year that exceeded $1bn. Per its website, it is the “world’s largest museum, education, and research complex”. The Smithsonian Institution’s collection holds more than 150m items, including historical artefacts, scientific specimens, fossil flora and fauna, art and other objects and materials.
The institution is not a government agency, but a “trust instrumentality” of the United States, which means that it was created by Congress. It is overseen by a board of regents that includes the chief justice of the supreme court, the vice-president, three members of each house of Congress and nine appointed citizens. The order seeks to appoint new “citizen members” to the board, who are “committed to advancing the policy of this order”.
What is included in the Smithsonian collection?
The Smithsonian Institution’s collection is vast – less than 1% of the collection is on display at any given time, and some parts of it are available online. The Smithsonian Institution’s total collection includes works of art spanning 6,000 years and across different cultures; an oral history collection; sculptures; historical artefacts; full-size planes, missiles and spacecraft; algae, flowering plants and microscopic plants; marine animals; mammals; fossils and much more. Many of the collections are utilized solely for research purposes.
Are specific Smithsonian museums under attack?
Trump’s executive order specifically targets the American Women’s History Museum, which currently exists only as an online exhibition, with plans for a physical museum in the future. The order criticized the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), for its exhibit The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture, which “examines for the first time the ways in which sculpture has shaped and reflected attitudes and understandings about race in the United States”. The order also targets the NMAAHC, which opened in 2016 under the leadership of the historian Lonnie G Bunch III, the Smithsonian’s first Black American secretary.
In 2017, Trump toured the NMAAHC and celebrated its existence.
“I’m deeply proud that we now have a museum that honors the millions of African American men and women who built our national heritage, especially when it comes to faith, culture and the unbreakable American spirit,” he said. “I know President [Barack] Obama was here for the museum’s opening last fall. And I’m honored to be the second sitting president to visit this great museum.”
Earlier this year, Bunch spoke about America’s upcoming 250th anniversary, and the then-upcoming Trump administration.
“It’s really clear that the Smithsonian, by its very nature … is always driven by the best scholarship. But it’s important to recognize that if you explore art, history, culture, science – by definition, you’re going to deal with controversy. By definition, you’re going to deal with multiple points of view. The goal here is never, ever to create a sense of self-censorship in the Smithsonian, but to recognize that the Smithsonian has to educate a whole lot of people, some who believe exactly in the interpretations you do, others who are diametrically opposed, and you’ve got to be able to serve both.”
Has the Smithsonian Institution faced censorship attempts before?
In 2010, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery pulled a video called A Fire in My Belly, which was produced at the height of the Aids epidemic, after the Catholic League and some members of the House of Representatives, including John Boehner and Eric Cantor, spoke out against its inclusion.
Last year, LGBTQ+ employees at the Smithsonian Institution said that the organization had canceled multiple previously planned drag shows, following a House of Representatives oversight hearing.
