US archivist accused of disinfecting exhibits on American history

A Biden-appointed archivist who runs the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C., reportedly removed mentions of negative events in United States history from planned exhibitions last year, including references to the government's mass displacement of Native American communities and the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.

According to a report from October 29th Wall Street JournalInterviews with nearly a dozen former and current museum employees and internal documents revealed that Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan and her top aides directed their staff last year to remove certain objects and details to avoid angering Republican lawmakers and not to annoy visitors “confronted.”

The newspaper also reported that at least six senior executives have resigned in recent months, some citing Shogan's leadership.

In an Oct. 30 statement posted on her blog on the National Archives website, Shogan said she “strongly disagrees.”[d] with the misinformed perspective presented in the article.”

“The Wall Street Journal published an article based on anonymous complaints about this work and my leadership of the agency,” their statement read in part. “As federal employees, we are not here to promote or share our personal interpretation of the records. That's a matter for others. We are here to preserve, protect and share the records with all Americans.”

Shogan's tenure as archivist has come under intense scrutiny from Republican lawmakers since her appointment in 2022. The appointment came just days before federal investigators searched former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort for classified documents following a criminal referral from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the agency that oversees the eponymous museum . During her Senate confirmation hearings, Republican lawmakers repeatedly questioned her social media presence and past academic work, claiming she had a liberal bias. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called her “extremely partisan,” which she denied and responded, “I stand by my record of impartial service.”

Since being sworn in as Archivist in May 2023, Shogan has been responsible for a number of transformative program changes at the National Archives Museum as part of a major renovation scheduled to be completed by next fall. The project consists of a comprehensive redesign of the museum's permanent exhibition galleries, educational space and theater in advance of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.

Although this project was planned years before Shogan's tenure, former employees said this Wall Street Journal that Shogan wanted to implement changes to the plans last fall, telling senior staff that she wanted to ensure the exhibitions did not promote a partisan narrative.

As a result, staff have accused the archivist of intentionally sanitizing and reframing proposed exhibits, including ones about Native land removal during white settlers' westward expansion in the 19th century. In another case, documents and statements from employees revealed that Shogan and her advisers ordered employees to remove Dorothea Lange's photos of Japanese-American concentration camps because they were “too negative and controversial.” Wall Street Journal reported. Staffers also told the newspaper that a planned exhibit that referenced amendments to the Constitution, such as the 13th and 19th Amendments abolishing slavery and granting women the right to vote, was cut because it depicted the Founding Fathers in a negative light represented light.

In response to HyperallergicA spokesman for the National Archives noted that Shogan has included the 19th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved Black people in the Confederate States during the Civil War before the 13th Amendment made emancipation a national policy, in the currently open National Archives Rotunda.

Shogan's programming decisions allegedly extended to the removal of historical figures from public displays, according to statements from employees and documents reviewed by the agency Wall Street Journal.

While planning an interactive photo booth, Shogan's senior staff reportedly replaced proposed images of civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. and Dolores Huerta with photos of former President Richard Nixon meeting Elvis Presley and former President Ronald Reagan talking to him about baseball -Shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. (Shogan's team justified this by refusing to show activists and that visitors would not recognize King).

While these changes have reportedly obscured negative events in U.S. history, they have also delayed the opening of the new exhibits (originally scheduled for next summer) and are expected to cost over $332,000 Wall Street Journal reported.

“The overall goal of redesigning our Signature Galleries is to expand our storytelling and our ability to share our holdings with our visitors so that all Americans can have their stories reflected in our spaces,” said a National Archives spokesperson Hyperallergic.

“With more than 13 billion records in our care, necessary curatorial decisions must always be made carefully – we can never display more than a tiny percentage of our collection,” the spokesperson added.