STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump's administration chose Independence Day weekend to attack the Smithsonian Institution again. The administration accuses the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History here in Washington of, quote, "extreme political activism" for its portrayal of history. Lonnie Bunch, the head of the Smithsonian, recently discussed his institution's mission in an unrelated interview on NBC's "Meet The Press."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")
LONNIE BUNCH: In essence, America's greatest strength - it's not running away from its history, but it's understanding how that history shaped us and continues to shape us.
INSKEEP: Sarah Weicksel joins us next. She's executive director of the American Historical Association. Welcome.
SARAH WEICKSEL: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. So you've seen the latest accusations against the Smithsonian, which didn't strike me as all that major. They disagreed with a few bits of wording on cards and so forth. What do you make of it?
WEICKSEL: It is precisely what I would have expected in terms of the kinds of criticisms that it focuses in on about the Founding Fathers and ideas about patriotism. This is in line with what we've been seeing come from the administration over the last year and a half about its version of history that it wants told.
INSKEEP: The bottom line here, I suppose, is the administration wants a kind of common view of American history that brings Americans together by emphasizing that - well, emphasizing - how would you put it? - that all the Founding Fathers were all positive?
WEICKSEL: What the report is making clear is that the story the administration wants told is a basic consensus view of U.S. history. That's the words the report uses. And what that actually looks like is a flattened, more easily narrated set of facts and, in this case, also really focusing in on that founding moment. And they want the museum to do this by giving a recounting of the most basic timeline of U.S. history.
But here's the problem - American history is anything but a basic set of facts. It's really complicated, and that's why it's so interesting. So the timeline and approach that the report's advocating for, sure, that's a useful tool for orienting visitors, but the excitement and the depth of historical interpretation, that comes through historical evidence that the museum exhibits - the objects, the documents, the images. Those help tell our national stories, and they allow visitors to connect to those stories in ways that are going to inspire them to explore further. And that's the whole point of the museum.
INSKEEP: You've walked around that museum, I would imagine. Does it distort history, in your view?
WEICKSEL: It does not distort history. And in fact, the report is misrepresenting the museum's collection and especially the exhibition of extraordinary artifacts that tell the history of the American Revolution. They seem to have missed entirely, for instance, one of the exhibits that takes up the greatest floor space, "The Price Of Freedom," which tells the history of American war.
INSKEEP: Wow. Wow. I want to ask briefly in the seconds we have left about Lonnie Bunch, who we heard at the beginning - first African American head of the Smithsonian Institution. He has not been fired. He's not been removed. He's not been pushed aside. Are you - how would you rate his performance over the last year and a half of pressure?
WEICKSEL: I think that Secretary Bunch has done an extraordinary job. He is committed to ensuring that the Smithsonian maintains its independence. And that is something that we all need to be concerned about and that we consider to be paramount - independence of the Smithsonian.
INSKEEP: On this week after Independence Day weekend, Sarah Weicksel, thanks so much.
WEICKSEL: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: She's with the American Historical Association.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAY UNGAR, ET AL.'S "ASHOKAN FAREWELL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
