The Smithsonian is a heck of a lot more than its 21 museums. Today on Civics 101 Richard Kurin tells us all about about an institution that interacts with all three branches of government, has a budget of over a billion dollars, and is dedicated to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge" among all.
So how did it start? How does it run? What does the Chief Justice have to do with all this? And, finally, why do we collect items in the first place?
Transcript
Hannah McCarthy: There was this point a few months before we were headed to Washington, D.C., and we were talking about which museums to visit, etc., etc. when I realized something, and I am ashamed to admit that it took me as long as it did. I had no idea what the quote unquote Smithsonian was.
Nick Capodice: Well, not no idea. Hannah.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah. Okay. Not. [00:00:30] No idea. Like it is museums. They are museums. I, uh, like a museum spread across a bunch of different places. And then, of course, I got to thinking about the sheer number of times that I have seen that Smithsonian logo on things. You know, the one I'm talking about.
Nick Capodice: Yeah, like that blue circle with the yellow thing inside. It's everywhere in D.C..
Hannah McCarthy: Not just D.C. all over the country. And that yellow thing, Nick, is [00:01:00] the sun, which has a lot to do with the whole point of the Smithsonian. Um, but it is everywhere. I was recently checking out the USS Constitution in the Charlestown Navy Yard, and I was walking into the museum, and there it was. And while we are on the subject of my home state, I have seen it in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on an observatory. I have seen it in Springfield, I've seen it in Plymouth, I've seen it in Lowell.
Nick Capodice: And for those of you not afflicted with the myopia [00:01:30] that is being from Massachusetts.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, uh, it's true. I cannot be the one to make an episode about the Kennedy family. I have found in my own family's archives a Christmas card that has the Pope on one side and JFK on the other.
Nick Capodice: Camelot aside, I'm pretty sure if you wanted to find a Smithsonian something in whatever state you're listening to this episode, you sure can.
Hannah McCarthy: You sure can. The Smithsonian is in every state in the nation via [00:02:00] its quote unquote, affiliates. Uh, many of those states several times over. It is also in Puerto Rico and Panama. And we are not just talking about museums. It is also a research institution, an educational institution. And, Nick, it is the biggest one.
Nick Capodice: The biggest one...what?
Hannah McCarthy: The biggest museum, research and education complex in the world.
Nick Capodice: Now, I feel this [00:02:30] is a good time to remind our listeners that we are Civics 101. And in trying to address something that is the biggest in the world, we really are going to have to stick to the 101.
Hannah McCarthy: Are you reminding our listeners or are you reminding someone else?
Nick Capodice: I think that question says more about you than it does about me. Hannah.
Hannah McCarthy: All right. One on one it is so to take us through it, let's meet Richard.
Richard Kurin: Uh, so I'm Richard Kurin, I'm the distinguished scholar and ambassador at large at the Smithsonian. [00:03:00]
Nick Capodice: We should just go ahead and get this out there right now. We really like Richard.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, we really do. I walked out of that interview and I was like, oh, no, Nick, did I just get dazzled? And then I was like, never mind, I don't care.
Nick Capodice: Which is important to note, because nothing that big can be without issues.
Hannah McCarthy: Nothing that big. That is also about the preservation of natural and cultural history and science and the storytelling thereof. I mean, yeah, you better bet that the Smithsonian has 170 plus years [00:03:30] of controversy, and I will talk about that a bit, and I encourage you to follow your own rabbit holes. But as promised, I am sticking to the 101 with a person who very much believes in this institution.
Richard Kurin: Well, I've worked at the Smithsonian. I started working at the Smithsonian in 1976 for the bicentennial of the United States. Now we're heading to the two 50th. So I've had almost 50 years at the Smithsonian. I've been the undersecretary of the Smithsonian. I've run several of the museums. I've run various programs, [00:04:00] and now I do a lot of special projects and a lot of my own research. I have a bunch of books to write, so that's what I do.
Nick Capodice: Richard is also an author many times over, including a book about the Hope diamond, which was particularly delightful to us that afternoon, as the night before Hannah had fallen down the tunnels of Hope Diamond lore after watching Titanic.
Hannah McCarthy: That was the same night that I learned the best floating position for conserving body heat. When waiting for rescue in the water. You can just email me if you want to talk about [00:04:30] that. But yeah, Richard has studied and written about many objects that tell the history of the United States and the world, and objects are certainly in the Smithsonian's wheelhouse.
Nick Capodice: And real quick, the Smithsonian is what you know. I know it's like museums and research education, but what is it like? Which museums, which research institutions, etc.?
Hannah McCarthy: Okay. The museums, there are 21 of them, including the [00:05:00] national museums of natural History, Asian art, air and space, African American history and culture, many more, and the National Zoo.
Richard Kurin: A lot of people don't realize like, wait, this Smithsonian has a zoo. We operate the National Zoo. Well, how did that happen? Well, the zoo happened because we had this taxidermist in the 1870s and 1880s who had to figure out how to stuff buffalo skins, and [00:05:30] he never seen a buffalo. He was a guy from the East. He never seen a live buffalo. He goes out west, finds that the buffalo are being disseminated. There's very few buffalo. It goes out again, later ends up bringing Buffalo back to the National Mall of the United States. And that starts the division of living animals or the National Zoo. And people want more animals. And over the years we start getting involved. He was at the beginning, but others following him in the conservation [00:06:00] of species. So the irony that you start off with a taxidermist, you know, figuring out how to stuff dead skin and the institution, you know, well, over 100 years later and more still going interested in the conservation of species around the planet. And that's one of the things the Smithsonian does.
Nick Capodice: You know what I find poetic about this story? A lot of people ask, why do we have zoos in the first place? Right? And a big part of the answer is, well, people mess things up.
Hannah McCarthy: And not [00:06:30] just zoos. Why do we have institutions to preserve things? Well, because we destroy things. I mean, even with the buffalo, we weren't just killing the buffalo. We were doing it in part to starve indigenous people in America. Also, a note on the taxidermist who helped to establish the National Zoo. He went on to be the director of the Bronx Zoo, where he unapologetically exhibited a human, a Congolese man. And you can learn more about that story [00:07:00] in our episode on why we have a National Zoo. All right, so there are 21 museums. There's the zoo, several environmental research centers, and astrophysical observatory archives, research programs, cultural institutions, educational initiatives. The Smithsonian is just so many things.
Nick Capodice: Well, so many things. Takes a lot of money and a lot of people. Mccarthy so let's get that part out of the way.
Richard Kurin: Okay, great. Well, you think that's a simple [00:07:30] question. There's been lawsuits about that. So this actually a statute that founds the Smithsonian. Now where is the Smithsonian kind of in the federal government? Well, there's there's something called the Board of Regents that was formed. And the Board of Regents, to some minds, violates the Constitution of the United States. So who's on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian, which is our governing body, the fiduciary body where where the authority is is [00:08:00] established? Well, the ex-officio members are the vice president of the United States, the Chief Justice of the United States, three senators, three representatives and nine citizens. So you have nine citizens and eight from the government and the government. People represent all three branches, which probably violates the Constitution.
Nick Capodice: All right. So Richard told us twice that the way the Smithsonian is run probably [00:08:30] violates the Constitution.
Hannah McCarthy: Which is not something that people volunteer all too often when it comes to their own organizations.
Richard Kurin: Well, just think about it. I mean, you have all three branches of government represented. So just on the face, it seems like there's an issue, right? I'm not a legal scholar on that.
Nick Capodice: A separation of powers issue.
Hannah McCarthy: which is not, by the way, gone unnoticed over the years.
Richard Kurin: The Smithsonian doesn't, you know, it's like its own thing. It's technically called a public trust establishment. [00:09:00] And there's been all sorts of things. You know, there was a point back in the early 1900s, Taft, who had been president, then became head of the Supreme Court, right. Chief justice. He was the chancellor of the Smithsonian. And they asked Taft, like, what's the what the heck is the Smithsonian? And he thought it was a public foundation. That was his kind of interpretation. Now we go back and forth. [00:09:30] If you look at laws where, for example, oftentimes with federal laws, they'll say this applies to the Smithsonian, and other times they'll say, this law does not apply to the Smithsonian because of its particular characteristic. And there's been a lot of court cases over the nature of the Smithsonian and what kind of agency it is and what kind of power it has.
Nick Capodice: I did, by the way, ask about the current Board of Regents. It is chief Judge. Justice [00:10:00] John Roberts and our Vice President, Kamala Harris, both by the Smithsonian charter. Also three senators, three reps.
Richard Kurin: And then you have nine citizen members. And the citizen members have gravitated between Nobel Prize winners, college presidents and billionaires. The last head of the citizen, the executive committee is was a Steve Case who just left that post. You know, one of the founders of America [00:10:30] Online before him, David Rubenstein. Carlyle Group. David just bought the Baltimore Orioles. You know, David's contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to everything from the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial to Mount Vernon, Monticello, the Smithsonian Library of Congress, and on and on and on.
Hannah McCarthy: In case you didn't catch that, three citizen members. Yeah, but not exactly ordinary citizens. The board works together to oversee the Smithsonian's priorities, plans, budget, [00:11:00] fundraising, legal and ethical obligations, and establishes policies, among other things.
Richard Kurin: A very mixed group, totally nonpartisan. I've been, you know, over the years, over decades, you know, part of the, you know, deliberations and discussions. And yet people are just care about the institution. They recognize that what they hold in trust is this really precious icon that's accomplished so much. It doesn't mean there's not frustration and it doesn't [00:11:30] mean you don't have. We've had our controversies over the years from, you know, the exhibit of the Enola Gay dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, big issue over that exhibit to, oh, about ten years ago, we had one over a homoerotic art in America hide, seek people on different sides of the issues. We've had contention over, uh, displays and exhibits on evolution, on various forms of artistry. You [00:12:00] know, I mean, look, we Americans like to argue that is part of Civics 101 arguing and disagreeing. And and the Smithsonian is not immune from that.
Hannah McCarthy: We will come back to arguing and issues when it comes to the Smithsonian. But in terms of what our listeners might ask when it comes to the Smithsonian's legal status, uh, this is what Richard had to say.
Richard Kurin: Your your listeners might have a question of what its legal status is. My answer to that is, but don't mess around with [00:12:30] it. It works.
Hannah McCarthy: And of course, Richard has some skin in the game here. But you know, you can make up your own mind. But if you're still wondering, I will post some links to the court cases that have attempted to address the Smithsonian over time. Basically, the answer is it has a unique legal status. It was established by Congress. The Chief Justice is a part of the Board of Regents, but it's not run by the judiciary. Uh, various presidents have issued executive [00:13:00] orders about it. Congress has passed hundreds of resolutions about it. It's funded in large part by the federal government. But it is no one thing. And if you are confused, then you are on the right track. Okay, money.
Richard Kurin: We get about a billion, $1.1 billion from the US Congress as an appropriation. And that's really largely to take care of the collections, the buildings, the the physical plant. It's a lot of the the workforce, [00:13:30] particularly administrative workforce at the Smithsonian. So we have about 4500 federal employees paid out of that money. And that pays the utilities, it pays for guarding the place, security and everything else. Um, but then we have our own trust funds. Remember that guy James Smithson, who gave us that $508,000 when he wrote his will in 1826?
Nick Capodice: They don't.
Hannah McCarthy: Don't worry, he's coming.
Richard Kurin: That amounts to a few billion dollars today. [00:14:00] And so that still pays out an endowment. And that's something that, again, the Regents and the secretary then decide how we're going to spend that. In addition, the Smithsonian raises about $300 million a year in philanthropy. That's more than any museum by far in the planet. And we get money from some of the wealthiest people in the planet. Jeff Bezos gave the Smithsonian $200 million, uh, for education and to help with our Air and Space Museum. But [00:14:30] I remember when we were building the African American Museum, and there were kids in new Jersey that, you know, did fundraising and handed over a check to the Smithsonian of, you know, very small amount of money, but very significant. We raised over $300 million a year. And then we, um, we get grants. As I said, the biggest unit of the Smithsonian is the Astrophysical Observatory. Uh, NASA has traditionally given the Smithsonian over $100 million a year to run. Spaceships [00:15:00] and telescopes and projects for NASA. But we get money from the Department of Education. We get money from Department of State. Uh, you know, we have all sorts of partnerships that help do that.
Nick Capodice: All right. So that was a lot of numbers.
Hannah McCarthy: Wasn't it, though?
Nick Capodice: Can I just get a like how much money in total did the federal government appropriate for the Smithsonian in 2024?
Hannah McCarthy: That would be 1.09 billion a year after year. The appropriation [00:15:30] shifts, but it typically amounts to like 60 something percent of the Smithsonian's annual funds. The rest come from those many other sources that Richard mentioned.
Nick Capodice: One very important source, Hannah, is that guy, James Smithson.
Hannah McCarthy: Oh, yeah, this one is very interesting. And we're going to get to that guy, James Smithson, right after the break.
Nick Capodice: But before that break, just a quick reminder. Civics 101 is a listener supported show and you are the listener. [00:16:00] We are so grateful for your support. If you're able to contribute, you can do that at our website, civics101podcast.org or just click the link in the show notes. And thank you so much.
Hannah McCarthy: We're back. We're talking about the history and operations of the Smithsonian here on Civics 101. And just before the break, we were about to get to the whole reason why the Smithsonian exists to begin with. [00:16:30] It goes back to an Englishman who never visited the United States.
Richard Kurin: The Smithsonian, you know, was founded by a guy named James Smithson. So he was a Brit born in the late 1700s, went to Oxford, never visited the United States, never came here. He was the illegitimate child of an aristocrat. He didn't really like the aristocratic system. He kind of believed in [00:17:00] democracy, invested in the French Revolution a little, didn't turn out so well. And but he believed in knowledge above all. Went to Oxford. Was an amateur scientist, explorer, mineralogist, chemist in his own right, and he had great faith in the United States. He made a lot of money in steam engines and canals. Development. Early industrial revolution. And he was writing his will in 1826, in London. And like, he didn't have any, he didn't have any [00:17:30] family, he didn't have any kids. And so he leaves his money to the United States of America to found in Washington, an institution dedicated to the increase in diffusion of knowledge among all. And it had to bear his name Smithsonian.
Hannah McCarthy: Quick caveat Smithson actually left most of his estate to his nephew with the provision that should the nephew die without heirs. And I do appreciate this interstitial legitimate or illegitimate read between the lines like [00:18:00] me, James Smithson, the money would be given to the US to found the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. It is a short will.
Nick Capodice: Can you even imagine being at that? Will reading am I say now this is highly irregular.
Hannah McCarthy: Why the man is never even been to America. Uh, sorry for the accents everyone. And actually, Nick, people really were flummoxed. There were news articles about it in Europe and in the US. It was not rare for a man [00:18:30] of science to leave a bunch of money to the pursuit of knowledge, but leaving it to the pursuit of knowledge in the very country that successfully cast Britain aside. Bold move. But then he was enamored of a country where public science might actually be a thing.
Nick Capodice: And his nephew did, in fact, die without heirs.
Hannah McCarthy: In fact, he did.
Richard Kurin: So Smithson left his money. At that time it was $508,000. That was a lot of money. When it came to the United States, it was equivalent to about 1/50 [00:19:00] of the US budget. That would be $100 billion today.
Nick Capodice: That number is just astonishing.
Hannah McCarthy: You know, I love this stuff. This is one of my many sticking points.
Nick Capodice: How much money is that in today's dollars? That question drives you nuts, Hannah.
Hannah McCarthy: Because it is all about context. Half a million bucks in the mid 19th century. Well, you know, gee, I don't know. Between paying off the War of 1812, dealing with the 1837 financial crash, gearing up for war with Mexico and being, you know, a still relatively [00:19:30] new country, uh, what is that worth? Often has a lot to do with what you've got. So for us, at the time, Smithson's cash was a windfall, a windfall that went super mismanaged for a while.
Richard Kurin: People in Congress fought over it. Nothing's changed. People wanted it for their own, their own pet projects. And Congress ended up debating about nine years before it finally came to the United States, I think in 1835. [00:20:00] And there was legislation in 1846 to establish the Smithsonian, and it was an institution dedicated, just as James Smithson said, to the increase and diffusion of knowledge. That's what we do.
Nick Capodice: 1846 is this like Jcpp we talk in James K Polk?
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, that's right. Polk uh, he signed the rather wordy act that established the Board of Regents, which we talked about. And the same act said that there should be a building, quote of plain and durable materials and structure without unnecessary ornament, unquote, with enough room [00:20:30] for a big collection of natural history objects, a chemistry lab, a library, an art gallery and lecture rooms. And not everyone was thrilled with what they decided to do with the money.
Richard Kurin: Some people wanted a library. There was a library men, as opposed to the museum men. And then the first secretary of the Smithsonian, a guy named Joseph Henry. He was really a scientist. He didn't want the Smithsonian Castle. He didn't want museums. He wanted pure research.
Nick Capodice: And just a minute here, Hannah, because there is a [00:21:00] castle. If you've been to DC and you've walked the National Mall, it's halfway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol building. And I'm not so sure I'd call a castle, quote unquote, without unnecessary ornament.
Hannah McCarthy: And notably, Nick, it does not look like the rest of the buildings in DC, actually. Does it remind you of anything?
Nick Capodice: Well, um, okay, if most of the buildings in DC are meant to evoke ancient Rome or Greece, then [00:21:30] I would say the Smithsonian Castle evokes like medieval England.
Hannah McCarthy: That is exactly it. It is a kind of Gothic Revival building supposed to remind you of the academic tradition. We were imitating the English one, just like our government buildings are supposed to remind you of the governments of ancient Rome and Greece. Fun fact by the way, Nick, the Gothic style is named after the Goths. And what did the Goths famously do? Nick. [00:22:00]
Nick Capodice: Oh, uh, they sacked Rome. Okay, well, that is a little funny. A Gothic castle in America's Rome.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, and the Smithsonian was supposed to kind of stand apart from the government.
Richard Kurin: The Smithsonian has always been a kind of scientific and scholarly endeavor, because that's what we have to base it on rather than, let's say, ideology or politics or everything else. And it has a kind of arm's length relationship with the government. It gets government money. It is an arm [00:22:30] of the federal government, but a lot of people aren't federal employees. And we have the freedom, academic and scholarly freedom to to pursue our interests and pursue the truths.
Hannah McCarthy: So we'll talk more about what the Smithsonian does. But the actual building, the castle it goes up, opens to the public in 1855, and they stock it with all sorts of things. Uh, also, James Smithson himself became a part of those all sorts of things. His crypt [00:23:00] is in the castle. That is a whole other story. Anyway, the first exhibits included a German steam machine, a library stocked with scientific books, engravings, maps, music, a huge collection of taxidermy and minerals, a meteorite, uh, and importantly, over 150 portraits of the, quote unquote, North American Indian.
Nick Capodice: Wait, really?
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah, really. They were done by an artist named John Mix Stanley. And you probably don't [00:23:30] know about these paintings. You might not even know about Stanley, because most of them were lost in a fire ten years later at the Smithsonian. Now, these images were considered accurate depictions of tribal life, and also very much fed by and into the American political propaganda that tribes were vanishing with westward expansion. It was this kind of natural and necessary destiny of assimilation or disappearance in the service of white American colonialism, which, of course, is a [00:24:00] myth that belies the forced exodus and genocide that was actually going on.
Nick Capodice: I feel like this is actually a pretty useful example of the distinction between a representative object and the story that an institution or museum actually tells about that object. And boy oh boy, does the Smithsonian have objects.
Richard Kurin: In 1876, you had the 100th anniversary of the United States. The Philadelphia Exposition was like a world's [00:24:30] fair. Countries had pavilions. All the states send stuff. All these artifacts were on display, including the Star Spangled Banner, including presidential memorabilia, all sorts of inventions, steam engines, the whole the whole shebang. And this guy Baird, who was then the assistant secretary of the Smithsonian, he loved collecting. He really liked he wanted the cases, he wanted the museums. And so he made a deal. And after the Philadelphia Exposition was over in 1876, [00:25:00] he filled up something like 60 boxcars, railroad boxcars of stuff, and sent them to Washington.
Nick Capodice: Okay. So pretty quickly, the Smithsonian becomes the place where American stuff ends up.
Richard Kurin: And then the Smithsonian became the repository for US collections. So all the patent models, for example, came to the Smithsonian. A lot of the collections of the State Department and other government departments, the US Navy [00:25:30] did expeditions around the world. Those collections came to the Smithsonian. So, you know, we ended up with George Washington's sword and Benjamin Franklin's staff and printing press and stamps and coins. And, you know, you remember, remember the Maine, remember the Maine. Yeah. Well, that ended up at the Smithsonian, some of it anyway. So so we became kind of a repository of that [00:26:00] national memory. And I think that later gave way to that notion of the Smithsonian as the nation's attic. You know, where all this stuff goes. Well, it doesn't just go there. It becomes the object of study, of reflection, of exhibition and so on. And it continues to do that to this day. But, you know, we've become a repository of the world's art world's culture.
Hannah McCarthy: So when it comes to what the Smithsonian does, remember that man, James Smithson, [00:26:30] who gave the money that established the Smithsonian? He didn't tell America what to do with that money, aside from establishing an institution for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.
Richard Kurin: It wasn't a set thing. It's not like Smithson said, okay, I'm leaving my money and they're going to build a fancy museum with my name on it, and they're going to have pretty cases and a lot of cabinets of curiosities. It was an idea, the pursuit of knowledge, and that's what we've done.
Nick Capodice: The [00:27:00] thing that did strike me repeatedly when we were talking to Richard was that everything they collected was supposed to be studied, not just put on display and looked at. It was supposed to be used essentially to get somewhere scientifically or culturally, like the bird thing.
Hannah McCarthy: Oh, yeah. The bird thing. Yeah.
Richard Kurin: One [00:27:30] of the great collections we have is all these birds, millions of birds at the Smithsonian. We have a unit at the Smithsonian called Forensic Ornithology. What the heck is forensic ornithology? So basically, whenever there's a bird strike in the United States, the FAA takes the remains of the bird strike, scrapes it off the windows of the plane or out of the, you know, the jet engines sends it to the Smithsonian, and there's a unit, the Smithsonian, [00:28:00] that has to identify it to figure out what birds caused the bird strike. So we did the work on who was it, Sully and the miracle on the Hudson. Yeah, that flight that came to the Smithsonian, it was the Smithsonian scientist that then used our collections as a basis for identifying, oh, let's blame it on the Canadians. It's Canadian geese that did this. And then you can divide. Then you could devise, um, interventions so that those birds don't strike planes. You know, I don't know what it is. We play rock music [00:28:30] at LaGuardia or something, but but the whole idea is understanding the world around us and how these collections can come into play in ways that you would never expect when they were first made. But given scientific advances can be very important.
Hannah McCarthy: Or the mosquito thing.
Richard Kurin: Well, all sorts of collections at the Smithsonian, including the National Mosquito Collection, the Smithsonian ended up collecting mosquitoes because, um, the nation with the building of the Panama [00:29:00] Canal and the notion of spread of disease by mosquitoes, that became very important. And the Smithsonian, in acquiring other collections, national health collections, got the National mosquito collection, 25,000 mosquitoes from, you know, over 100 years old. Well, you could think of that as some curiosity, but then you start thinking about diseases that are spread by mosquitoes. You think about viral vectors of disease, think about Aids, think about Ebola, bird flu, you know, all [00:29:30] these kind of things. Covid. So you start thinking about, gee, we have these collections and we could think of them as a bunch of mosquitoes on pins, or we have thousands and thousands of bats. And you could just think of it as so much stuff. But on the other hand, they could be the source of new scientific knowledge. All right.
Hannah McCarthy: So collecting remains in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. The pursuit of scientific knowledge has not always been fully scientific or ethical, and in fact has repeatedly [00:30:00] been destructive to people and detrimental to truth. And the Smithsonian, again, as that 170 year old plus institution dedicated to science and knowledge, is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a major inheritor of that legacy.
Nick Capodice: So you've already mentioned that the Smithsonian has dealt with controversies, and I'm assuming this is the part where we try a one on one as possible treatment.
Hannah McCarthy: Yeah. Okay. So in addition to the birds and the mosquitoes and the many, many animals, the Smithsonian also has the [00:30:30] human remains of 30,000 people from around the world. They were collected mostly in the 19th and 20th century, with the express purpose of proving white superiority. And a huge portion of the collection comprises people of color and specifically North American tribal peoples.
Nick Capodice: The Washington Post did a huge investigation on that collection in 2023. By the way. We're going to link to that in the show notes.
Hannah McCarthy: And many people who worked at the Smithsonian claimed that they were unaware of [00:31:00] the extent of the collection until reporters told them, including Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian, who issued an apology as that Washington Post article was being reported. Now, the museum does now have a task force recommending the repatriation of remains, with a process for contacting living descendants or communities of origin and ensuring the Smithsonian is meaningfully holding itself accountable for this violation. And I'll post a link to their web page about the collection in the show notes. [00:31:30] We should also note that it is not just the Smithsonian. Universities across the US, including Dartmouth College and UC Berkeley, have similar collections that were developed with the same white supremacist pseudoscience. But for the Smithsonian in particular. Again, the largest museum on the planet, cataloging and telling the story of America when so much of our past has been in and at the hands of often [00:32:00] racist, often white people. It's a constant reevaluation, a constant conversation about how the story has been told in the past and who gets to tell the story now. Richard mentioned some of the most recent pressure points earlier, and I will link to some of those issues in the show notes as well. But again, this is Civics 101.
Nick Capodice: The best laid plans. Hannah.
Hannah McCarthy: All right. I'm gonna wrap this up because I did tell you at the [00:32:30] beginning of this episode, when I first introduced Richard, that we were talking to someone who really is committed to the Smithsonian, its mission, the way it functions. And I just want to come back to that, like, what is this Smithsonian for?
Richard Kurin: I think what drives it is that sense of mission and purpose. You know that there's good things to be done. There's important things to be done. You know, we're not going to feed the hungry. We're not going to cure the sick. [00:33:00] But we can provide a lot in terms of knowledge and understanding, maybe even in some cases, wisdom to the country and the world. And so that that keeps you going. And then you deal with the frustration of the paperwork of, you need this form, the appropriation isn't done. You can't spend money out of this fund. You need that agreement. And so it's really having to put that together in some kind of cogent way. And I've always, um, [00:33:30] relied on a lot of people in the institution who kind of get the mission. It's not just paperwork. It's not just filling this out, it's not just checking off the boxes, but a real sense of mission.
Nick Capodice: One thing that really did stick with me talking to Richard is that this mission, which comes back to James Smithson's marching orders, the increase and diffusion of knowledge. It is interpreted extremely broadly.
Richard Kurin: I know when I was got involved after [00:34:00] the Haiti earthquake in 2010, we sent 80 people to Haiti. We took over UN building. We helped Haitians save their culture at a time they needed the most. When things had collapsed. Artwork was in the ruins, archives, libraries, everything and and it meant so much to them because it was the culture that would give them strength to survive. We made amazing things happen even before Congress acted, before we even had money in the bank. Somehow we made things [00:34:30] happen. People pulled together. Same thing after the hurricanes in Puerto Rico back in 2017. Remember awful flooding. There was no power in Puerto Rico. The biggest museum in Puerto Rico became a region of refuge for all the archives, artwork, artifacts of Puerto Rico over 500 years of history in a building with no air conditioning flooded on the ground floor with water in the building and mold. And somehow, as the last few days of the fiscal [00:35:00] year, last few days of the fiscal year in Washington, talk about how things work. You cannot buy a cup of coffee in Washington because we're trying to close the books. And somehow in those last few days, the Smithsonian ended up doing cash transfers of over $100,000 down to Puerto Rico, to that museum to be able to buy fuel for generators, to power up the air conditioning system, to stop the mold and save over 500 [00:35:30] years of Puerto Rican culture. That happened because of the women. Tina Jones in contracting at the Smithsonian who made it happen, who said, I'll take, you know, responsibility. We're going to get that contract through. We're going to process that money. We're going to help where it's needed most. So you have people like that around the institution that just step up.
Hannah McCarthy: You know, I said earlier [00:36:00] that the reason we have institutions to preserve things is because often we humans destroy things. But I have to admit, Nick, that that really is only part of the picture, because yes, we do destroy things, but there are a lot of us who understand that destroying the evidence of culture, of nature, of history is perhaps cosmically wrong. And if you want to debate right and [00:36:30] wrong and what's good and what's not, I'll go ahead and launch my philosophy podcast. But maintenance and distribution of what is and what has been is foundational to human progress, to our survival. And like, yes, the history of the Smithsonian itself contains erasure and regression in the name of progress. It does have a lot to answer for and a lot to fix. [00:37:00] And also, it seems to me at least, that there are people there who believe in preserving and sharing the actual truth so that we at least have the option of learning the real story.
Richard Kurin: So yeah, it takes an act of Congress to make a national museum, and it takes a good bit of consensus. And and then it doesn't mean that, you know, the debate or arguments stop. You know, how do we represent this culture? How do how do we [00:37:30] represent this aspect of our lives? How do we do that? And, you know, somebody's going to say, I don't like naked people in museums, you know, well, don't go there, but you can go see the guns in the other museum, you know? So, uh, you know, I often jokingly have talked to members of Congress and say, you know, not everybody has to like everything. Not everything has. But but but to subscribe to the the tremendous variety and the depth of life and experience in the United States. It's a big picture, [00:38:00] and it usually transcends any one person's particular interests or or likes or dislikes.
Hannah McCarthy: That does it for this episode. It was produced by me. Hannah McCarthy with Nick Capodice. Christina Phillips is our senior producer. Rebecca Lavoi is our executive producer. Music. In this episode by David Celeste [00:38:30] Beigel Roy, Edwin Williams, LM styles, Andreas Dahlback, Ryan James, Car Ott, Sven Lindvall, flyin Don, Don Don and rhymed clang soundtracks. If you have questions for Civics 101, we've either got answers or we will do our best to find them for you. You can ask us at our website, civics101podcast.org, where you can find every single episode we have ever made and if you are so inclined, make a contribution to the show. Civics 101 [00:39:00] is a production of NPR, New Hampshire Public Radio.