AHA executive director Sarah Weicksel spoke to the Washington Post about the recent executive order to place signage outside the National Museum of American History informing the public of the current administration’s criticisms of the museum’s content. She called the order “an absolute affront to the professionals who work in that building.”
The executive order, which comes after 16 months of attacks on the Smithsonian by the administration, also directs the erection of signage pointing visitors toward alternative “locations and resources” that align with the administration’s preferred interpretation of US history. Weicksel noted that the Smithsonian has had controversies over some exhibits in the past, but there is “no precedent” for the executive branch seeking “to present a completely alternative narrative” from a museum—one based on “a very narrow and very circumscribed definition of patriotism.”