Smithsonian History Museum Director Defends Honest Storytelling Despite Right-Wing Attacks
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Director Anthea Hartig stands firm against conservative lawmakers' attempts to whitewash American history, defending the museum's commitment to truth in exhibits, including those highlighting the nation's legacy of oppression.
The director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Anthea Hartig, stood before a House committee and unapologetically affirmed her pride in the museum’s work, refusing to bow to right-wing pressure to sanitize history. Despite attacks from the Heritage Foundation and Republican lawmakers, who targeted a display that courageously suggested Benjamin Franklin may have experimented with electrical shocks on enslaved or indentured individuals, Hartig made clear she has no regrets about the museum’s exhibitions.
Heritage Foundation researcher Mike Gonzalez, representing reactionary interests, condemned the exhibit “The Electric Dr. Franklin” (2021–2025) as 'shocking' for daring to raise uncomfortable questions about Franklin’s actions, even as he ignored the broader context of American scientific history’s ties to exploitation. Representative Brian Jack pressed Hartig to express regret over any exhibits, but she responded with integrity, acknowledging that while the museum corrects mistakes—such as a recently mislabeled coin in the American Presidency exhibit—she stands by the institution’s overall programming.
This latest wave of criticism follows a sprawling 162-page White House Domestic Policy Council report, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which accuses the museum of promoting 'radical activist ideology.' In reality, this is a thinly veiled attempt to suppress honest engagement with America’s complex past. Hartig stated the Smithsonian is reviewing the report’s findings but rejected its mischaracterization of the museum’s work, emphasizing the ongoing need for improvement and the importance of confronting history, not hiding from it.