A group of Massachusetts historians that includes Framingham State Professor Joseph M. Adelman is pushing back against efforts by the Trump Administration to influence how history is told at the Smithsonian Institution.

The administration recently ordered signs be placed outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. stating that not all exhibitions are accurate. It also issued a report that stated the museum “has become subject to institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology that is fundamentally opposed to telling the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love,” which prompted a response from the Organization of American Historians (OAH).

“I worry about people’s ability to...tell a rich and nuanced story about the American past...with political mandates about what should be in a museum or should be in a particular exhibit,” Dr. Adelman recently told the Boston Globe. 

Dr. Adelman is the author of Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing the News, 1763-1789 and host of the award-winning podcast Ben Franklins’ World. He is also an elected Member of the American Antiquarian Society and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

“The Smithsonian generally and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History do amazing work to tell American stories in all their complexity,” Adelman says. “Political demands to fit a single narrative undermine the methods of historians and the work of museum professionals. We all need to stand on the side of the Smithsonian and the work of history.”