Washington (AP) – The afternoon walk through Ground Zero of Americana – The National Museum of American History of Smithsonian – invites a question: What could be more American than that?
There is the huge star banner in all its temporal fame, Dorothy’s ruby scales from “The Wizard of Oz” and Totems of Achievement.
There are also tests on pain and cruelty. What could be American than a settlement with the sins of the nation, as by bonds, representing slavery and photos of Japanese Americans, represented in the Second World War?
Inadequate the museum “The complexity of our past” in accordance with its mission statement. President Donald Trump wants to tell a simpler story. He wants this and the other Smithsonian Museums American pride, power and performance without reflecting all the darkness, and he threatens to hold money back if they do not come with this program.
American genius and ugliness are on D.
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On social media, Trump complained that in the Smithsonian museums that can be visited free of charge and to get most of their money from the government.
In fact, the history museum reflects plenty of successes, be it on the battlefield, the kitchens and factories of food pioneers on the musical stage, in the films or on other fronts of creativity and diligence. In the American Enterprise exhibition, a wall filled with the stories of successful Americans.
On this wandering tour you can see Navigation devices from Blackbeard, the terrible pirate, from its early 1700 raids on the Atlantic coast. You can see that Abraham Lincoln hat on Fords Theater, George Washington Ceremonial Uniform, Warren Harding’s fine red silk pyjamas from the early 1900s, carried the first car through the country and a Bill 100,000 US dollar.
You can see the original featherlight bulbs of the American genius Thomas Edison. A much earlier genius, the founding father Benjamin Franklin, is presented both as a talented inventor and as a slave owner, who came publicly to condemn slavery and never have freed its own.
These nuances and ambiguities may not be long for this world. In the History Museum, artifacts and documents of American imagery, submission, generosity, racism, grit, the shame, the verve, playfulness, corruption, heroism and cultural appropriation.
Like most museums, the focus is not on the future.
There are many provocations
Nevertheless, there is a lot to provoke to provoke the Republican President.
In the “big debate” of an American democracy exhibition, a wall is decorated with vast words such as “privileges” and “slavery”. The museum presents the contributions of immigrants and stories about the racist landscape that many have met.
The exhibits deal with “Food Justice”, the exploitation of Filipinos, after the United States annexed their country and the network of oppressive indigenous people from America, from which Jim Thorpe became created and one of the greatest athletes of all time became.
Hawaiis last confidently before his annexation by the U..s. In the 1890s, Queen Lili’uokalani was quoted on a banner to ask: “Should the American Republic of the States be degenerate and colonizer?”
An issuing ukulele was equipped around 1890 by a sugar worker who worked on the Kingdom of the Kingdom’s American plantations before a coup supported by the USA fell the monarchy. I am informed that museum visitors keep the modern instrument from the monarchs as a symbol of anti -colonial independence.
“Ukuleles are both a product of US imperialism and a strong symbol for domestic Hawaiian resistance,” says the associated text.
In the Greek -Gott -like statue of George Washington, the text indicates its complexity and is about to be awe, which the totalitarian leaders receive.
In the text that “modern science focuses more on the fallen man than on the marble hero”, the text says that Washington’s image “is still used for inspiration, patriotism and commercial profit” and that “he continues to maintain a place for many as a symbolic ‘father of the country”.
The American spirit is also celebrated
During this visit, conservators are swing with small brushes behind a vast window on ancient wooden pieces. Her patriotic work is at a snail’s pace.
The team restored the cannon boat Philadelphia, part of a compact fleet that commissioned the British Navy on the Battle of Valcour Island in Lake Champlain and delayed Great Britain’s efforts to cut the New England colonies and to buy time so that the continental army has prepared for its decisive victory in Saratoga.
The commander of the cannon boats in the Battle of Valcour later became America’s greatest traitor, Benedict Arnold. The British damaged the Philadelphia so much that it sank one hour after the battle and then was under water for 160 years. It will be restored for the 250th year next year.
“The Philadelphia is a symbol of how the citizens of a newly shaped nation came together despite overwhelming opportunities against their success,” said Jennifer Jones, the director of the project. “The fragile state of this boat is a symbol for our democracy. It requires the attention and vigilance of the nation to preserve it for future generations.”
It doesn’t tell you what to think about, but think about it
The fragility of democracy is taken into account in part of the museum across the borders of the presidential power. Here, references to Trump’s two office surveys were removed in July for updating and restored this month.
“On December 18, 2019, the Donald Trump house charged the congress due to abuse of power and disability,” says a label. “On January 13, 2021, Donald Trump was the first president to be charged twice,” says another. “The indictment was uprising on the basis of his challenge of election results 2020 and his speech on January 6th.” Its Senate Freig is properly noted.
It is a precise attitude that the country separated so deeply. The history museum does not offer any answers to this situation. Instead, there are questions in the halls about the basics of Americanism.
“How should the Americans remember their revolution and the establishment of the nation?”
“What does patriotism look like?”
“How diverse should the citizens be?”
“Do we have to share a common national history?”
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Associated Press Writer Lynn Berry contributed to this report.
