Smithsonian History Museum Director Faces Two Days of Hearings Over Content and Ideology

Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, spent two straight days this week answering questions from House Republicans about how her museum tells the American story, and what it puts on display for kids.

The first hearing, held Tuesday, July 21, by the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, was titled "Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian's Efforts to Reshape the Past." The second came Wednesday, July 22, before the House Administration Committee, focused on what lawmakers called "radical revisionism" at the museum.

Both hearings trace back to a July 4 report from the White House Domestic Policy Council, "Saving America's Story," a 162-page document that grew out of a federal review of 19 Smithsonian museums launched in August. The report accused the museum of "institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology" and said it portrays the United States as defined by "white supremacy, slavery, conquest, exclusion, hierarchy, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and systemic injustice," according to USA Art News.

Hartig rejected that characterization at the hearing. "The Smithsonian takes the concerns raised in the White House Domestic Policy Council's report seriously, and as we continue to fact-check the report, we unwaveringly attest that it does not fairly or accurately characterize the full body of work at the museum," she said, according to USA Art News.

The Politeness and Objectivity Exchange

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) pressed Hartig on materials that, he said, tie politeness and objectivity to "white supremacy culture," according to Breitbart. Gill appeared to reference a 2021 graphic from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, titled "Aspects & Assumptions of Whiteness & White Culture in the United States," and a version of the Smithsonian's MASS (Museum As Site for Social Action) Toolkit dated 2017, which listed objectivity, including "repressing emotions in decision-making" and "thinking in a linear fashion," as characteristics associated with white culture.

Asked directly whether she was a "white supremacist," Hartig said no. She told Gill she was "not exactly familiar" with the specific toolkit passage he quoted, and said the toolkit itself was not developed by the Smithsonian but was used as a reference document, likely around 2019-2020, Breitbart reported. Gill also asked Hartig whether Mickey Mouse was racist; she said he was not.

Exhibits on Gender and Sexuality

The sharper fight centered on exhibit content. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) questioned Hartig on Wednesday about the "Girlhood (It's Complicated)" exhibit, which included a teen girl's diary referencing transgender identity, and about a separate item described as a "crotch harness," according to the Daily Signal. Hartig said the exhibits in question are no longer on display and that any minor entering the museum must be accompanied by an adult.

Miller countered with video she said showed Hartig, when the exhibit first opened, saying "we look forward to welcoming girls and boys to this exhibition." The committee had technical trouble playing the clip. "There's explicit video to prove that you welcomed children to an exhibit that features sexually explicit material," Miller said, per the Daily Signal.

At Tuesday's hearing, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), the subcommittee chairman, pointed to a poster from the museum's "Entertainment Nation" exhibit depicting drag performers and bondage imagery, and asked Hartig about a display in which a six-year-old girl asks why she doesn't have male genitalia, according to Liberty Nation. Hartig did not give Burchett a direct yes-or-no answer after three attempts, Liberty Nation reported.

Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) asked Hartig to name the most influential book in American history; when she could not, he cited the Bible and Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," then asked why a sexually explicit passage from George Takei's memoir was stocked in the museum bookstore's children's section instead, per Liberty Nation. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) asked what message BDSM-related imagery sent to children visiting an American history museum; Hartig, Liberty Nation reported, responded with a smile rather than a direct answer.

Democrats Push Back

Not every lawmaker treated the hearings as a legitimate oversight function. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) called the White House report a "political witch hunt" and introduced the Smithsonian Integrity and Historical Independence Act, which she said would bar federal officials, including White House staff, from interfering in the Smithsonian's interpretation of history, according to USA Art News. Yale historian David Blight, cited in the same report, argued that legitimate history requires "nuance, ambiguity, and complexity," not slogans from either side.

Museums are supposed to wrestle with hard, contested material, and demanding a single tidy narrative risks flattening real historical complexity. That argument doesn't answer the specific questions lawmakers asked, twice, over two days, about whether sexually explicit imagery belongs in front of unaccompanied six-year-olds at a taxpayer-funded history museum. Hartig had multiple chances to answer that narrow question directly and did not.

No charges, funding cuts, or personnel actions have been announced against Hartig or the museum. The White House review of the Smithsonian's 19 museums is continuing, and further hearings on grants and collection displays are expected, according to USA Art News.