All posts tagged: Smithsonian

Smithsonian carousel reopens on National Mall : NPR

Smithsonian carousel reopens on National Mall : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Denay Wilkerson and her son Cairo, 2, ride the newly restored Smithsonian National Carousel on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Valerie Plesch for NPR hide caption toggle caption Valerie Plesch for NPR The Smithsonian Institution’s carousel is back open for business Friday after being closed for nearly three years for restoration and refurbishments. Brightly painted ponies have been going round and round, delighting children, for centuries. But the joys they bring haven’t always been accessible to everyone. The ribbon-cutting at the Smithsonian National Carousel nodded to this fact. Baltimore County police officers lift a white demonstrator into a patrol wagon on July 4, 1963. The man was arrested after he and some 400 other demonstrators protested the whites-only policy of Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in suburban Woodlawn, Md. Other demonstrators who had been arrested and escorted from the park sit in the background. William A. Smith/AP hide caption toggle caption William A. Smith/AP The first to ride the reopened carousel was a group of African American adults who arrived from Baltimore. In …

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Named Smithsonian American Art Museum Director

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Named Smithsonian American Art Museum Director

Published by José Betancourt

The Smithsonian on Tuesday named Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, currently the executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, as the next Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). She begins September 8. Hartigan succeeds Jane Carpenter-Rock, who has led SAAM on an interim basis since September 2024, when Stephanie Stebich was removed as director and reassigned to an advisory role at the Smithsonian Institution. Stebich’s exit followed staff complaints about her management style and what the Washington Post reported were years of declining morale. Carpenter-Rock will remain at the museum as deputy director for museum content and outreach. Related Articles The appointment is a homecoming for Hartigan, who began her career at SAAM and spent two decades at the institution, eventually rising to chief curator. During that tenure she led an internationally recognized acquisitions initiative that significantly expanded the museum’s holdings of work by modern, contemporary, and self-taught artists. She also worked extensively on folk art and art by Black artists and developed an expertise on …

Smithsonian Slave Ship Artifact Returns to South Africa

Smithsonian Slave Ship Artifact Returns to South Africa

Published by Jenni Sidey

A relic of the transatlantic slave trade that has anchored a major gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture since its opening will soon leave Washington, DC. According to the Associated Press, the museum plans to remove a timber fragment from the São José-Paquete de Africa, a Portuguese slave ship that sank off the coast of Cape Town in 1794 while carrying more than 400 captive Africans. The 33-pound piece of wood, displayed in the museum’s “Slavery and Freedom” exhibition since 2016, will return to the Iziko Museums of South Africa when its loan agreement expires this year. Related Articles Museum officials say the artifact’s final day on view will be March 22. The timber sits at the center of one of the museum’s most solemn spaces, a dimly lit gallery devoted to the Middle Passage, the brutal Atlantic crossing that carried millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas. Suspended over a dark void beside ballast stones once used on the ship, the fragment offers a rare physical connection to the vessels that …

Volunteer Group Archives Smithsonian Wall Text

Volunteer Group Archives Smithsonian Wall Text

Published by José Betancourt

A group of historians and volunteers has been documenting wall labels across the Smithsonian Institution as the Trump administration pushes for changes to how American history is presented in federal museums, according to The Washington Post. The effort, organized under the name Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, began after administration officials called for reviews of content at several museums and urged the removal of what they described as “divisive narratives.” The Smithsonian, which comprises 21 museums and the National Zoo, has increasingly become a focal point in debates over historical interpretation. Related Articles The group was co-founded by James Millward, a Georgetown University historian, and Chandra Manning, a US history professor at Georgetown. Over seven weeks in late summer and early fall, they recruited hundreds of volunteers to photograph and archive publicly accessible wall text throughout the Smithsonian system, compiling more than 50,000 images, the Post reported. The documentation effort drew attention after the National Portrait Gallery replaced wall text accompanying President Donald Trump’s portrait. According to the Post, the previous label stated that Trump …

Watch: Melania Trump speaks as 2025 inauguration gown debuts at Smithsonian

Watch: Melania Trump speaks as 2025 inauguration gown debuts at Smithsonian

Published by Sam Flores

First lady Melania Trump gave remarks at the National Museum of American History in Washington on Friday, as her 2025 Inauguration Day gown makes its debut at the Smithsonian. The Hervé Pierre-designed white gown that featured a dramatic black stripe that Trump wore at the inauguration balls to celebrate President Trump’s return to the White House will… Source link

White House Suggests Expanded Trump Display at Smithsonian

White House Suggests Expanded Trump Display at Smithsonian

Published by Jenni Sidey

In mid-December, on a tour of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Abby Jones, the acting chief of protocol at the State Department, floated the idea that the Smithsonian should create a dedicated gallery featuring multiple images of President Donald Trump, according to the New York Times. This, of course, would be in addition to his official portrait. Later, administration officials noted that the White House regularly receives artworks depicting the President from supporters and suggested that some of it could be displayed at the museum. Related Articles “President Trump receives an unprecedented amount of beautiful artwork from patriotic Americans all across our great country,” a statement released by the White House said, “and it is important to the People’s President that their creations are showcased throughout the halls of our Nation’s Capital.” There is no formal proposal on the table, the Times reported, and it remains unclear how seriously the idea is being considered, since the Smithsonian has not received an official request. The National Portrait Gallery regularly includes more than one image of past Presidents …

Smithsonian museum to return three bronze sculptures illegally removed from Indian temples

Smithsonian museum to return three bronze sculptures illegally removed from Indian temples

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art announced that it was returning three medieval bronze sculptures to India after an internal investigation revealed they had been removed illegally. A 10th-century Shiva Nataraja, a 12th-century Somaskanda statue of Shiva with his family, and a 16th-century image of the poet-saint Sundarar with his consort Paravai will be handed over to the Indian government. A museum spokesperson told The Independent the decision to return the statues followed extensive research into their origin. This involved examining “archival records, dealer documentation and photograph evidence, including images taken in situ at temples in Tamil Nadu, which confirmed these sculptures had been removed without authorisation in the mid 20th century”. According to the museum, the history of the statues became clear after it undertook a review of its South Asian collection. Photographs preserved in the Photo Archives of …

The Real Fight for the Smithsonian

The Real Fight for the Smithsonian

Published by Sam Flores

“The object of the Museum is to acquire power,” announces a crusty old archaeologist in Penelope Fitzgerald’s 1977 satire, The Golden Child. It isn’t a goal he respects. He wants the museum where he’s settled into semiretirement to genuinely devote itself to educating its visitors. Instead, he correctly charges, its curators act like a pack of Gollums, hoarding “the art and treasures of the earth” for their own self-aggrandizement and pleasure. Fitzgerald never names the museum The Golden Child is about, but it’s a massive state-run one in London: It’s not hard to guess that it’s the British Museum. If she had been writing in the United States, she’d surely have targeted one of the 21 museums that make up the Smithsonian, an institution that has its own struggle with hoarding—and with the public’s idea that it hoards. Its reputation as the “nation’s attic” is entrenched enough that the National Museum of American History winked at it with an exhibit by that name in 1980. But the Smithsonian has long sought a higher mission than …

Smithsonian Hands Over Internal Materials to White House

Smithsonian Hands Over Internal Materials to White House

Published by José Betancourt

The Smithsonian Institution has turned over internal materials related to its programming and operations amid White House pressure for a review, according to private emails from Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch II obtained by The New York Times. After retaking office in January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at purging what he described as “anti-American ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution, the consortium of Washington, D.C., museums and archives that includes the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Related Articles The Trump administration demanded by Tuesday full compliance with an August directive requiring the Smithsonian to hand over internal materials for review or risk losing federal funding, which makes up the vast majority of its budget. In response, Bunch publicly reiterated the institution’s nonpartisanship and independence, saying the Smithsonian would conduct its own review and brief the administration on its findings. The revelation that the Smithsonian would transfer materials on a rolling basis—including “digital …

Smithsonian Responds to White House Pressure by Handing Over More Plans on Its Exhibits

Smithsonian Responds to White House Pressure by Handing Over More Plans on Its Exhibits

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Smithsonian Institution gave the White House new documents on its planned exhibits Tuesday in response to a demand to share precise details of what its museums and other programs are doing for America’s 250th birthday. For months, President Donald Trump has been pressing the Smithsonian to back off “divisive narratives” and tell an upbeat story on the country’s history and culture, with the threat of holding back federal money if it doesn’t. The institution is a cornerstone of American culture, operating 21 museums and a zoo that are among the most popular tourist destinations in Washington. By Tuesday, the Smithsonian was supposed to provide lists of all displays, objects, wall text and other material dedicated to this year’s anniversary and other purposes. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III told staff, in an email obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post, that “we transmitted more information in response to that request.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment, leaving it unclear whether it was satisfied with …