Top Archivist Puts Rosy Spin on US History - Prunes Thorny Parts: Revision, New Regime: Natl Archives

Last edited Mon Nov 18, 2024, 07:35 AM - Edit history (1)

🏛 America’s Top Archivist Puts a Rosy Spin on U.S. History—Pruning the Thorny Parts
The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 29, 2024. - Edit.

- Plans for new exhibits at the National Archives Museum included swapping a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. marching for Civil Rights for former President Nixon greeting Elvis
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WASHINGTON—The Biden appointee in charge of the nation’s most treasured documents has over the past year ignited a behind-the-scenes fight over the telling of American history.

U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history. She has ordered the removal of prominent references to such landmark events as the government’s displacement of indigenous tribes and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II from planned exhibits.

Visitors shouldn’t feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed. Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency’s budget—or a potential Trump administration. She was tapped for the job at a sensitive time for the agency—days before federal agents searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022, spurred by the Archives’ discovery that Trump had taken home classified records.

Republicans accused the agency of abusing its authority and targeting the former president. GOP lawmakers grilled Shogan about alleged partisan leanings during her confirmation hearings.

Shogan has since overseen a host of changes to exhibits planned in a roughly $40 million makeover of the National Archives Museum, which draw more than a million visitors a year, and the adjacent Discovery Center, which provides education programs for students and families. Longtime employees said Shogan’s directives amounted to censorship.

.. A proposed exhibit exploring changes to the Constitution since 1787, which included amendments abolishing slavery and expanding the right to vote, was shrunk. Archives leaders told employees that focusing on the amendments portrayed the Founding Fathers in a negative light, by highlighting issues they had gotten wrong, according to current and former employees. Shogan’s team also asked that a video promoting National History Day remove a photo of former first lady Betty Ford wearing an Equal Rights Amendment pin, according to former employees...

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/america-s-top-archivist-puts-a-rosy-spin-on-u-s-history-pruning-the-thorny-parts/ar-AA1tacpf
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Also: 'Obeying Fascism in Advance,' National Archivist Sanitized US Museum. Common Dreams, Oct. 31, 2024. Edit. - "At first glance laughable, this is a very ominous preview of what will be far vaster self-censorship and reality distortion that... entities will engage in if Trump wins," warned one journalist.
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Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journal reporting that "U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history."

Win Without War president Stephen Miles said Thursday that "this is beyond shameful by the National Archives. Preemptively self-censoring and hiding essential parts of any honest telling of American history in an effort to protect its budget is a supreme dereliction of their mission." Others slammed the reported conduct by Shogan, an appointee of Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, and her advisers as "disgraceful" and "totally unacceptable."

Shogan had her initial Senate confirmation hearing in September 2022, around six weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigation first raided Mar-a-Lago, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee now facing Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. That federal case against Trump—which is still playing out in court—began with the National Archives discovering he had taken boxes of materials.

The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum—home to the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and Declaration of Independence—and the adjacent Discovery Center.

Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes. "Visitors shouldn't feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed," according to the newspaper. "Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency's budget—or a potential Trump administration."

Responding on social media Thursday, Mary Todd said that "as a historian, I am gobsmacked by this. History should make you uncomfortable."...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/the-national-archives-museum