Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’; The Guardian, January 8, 2026

 Charlotte Higgins , The Guardian; Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’

[Kip Currier: Informative reporting by The Guardian on Trump 2.0 efforts to whitewash and erase centuries of history and culture by imprinting one man's and one movement's views on the Smithsonian museums.

Share this with as many people as possible to raise awareness and promote advocacy for the historical integrity and unfiltered authenticity of museums within the Smithsonian Institution system.]

[Excerpt]

"Lonnie Bunch, in the meantime, is holding a delicate line. On 18 December, a new letter from the White House arrived for him. The Smithsonian had fallen short in providing the information requested on 12 August, it said. “We wish to be assured,” it continued, “that none of the leadership of the Smithsonian museums is confused about the fact that the United States has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world. The American people will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history.” Then came the threat. “As you may know, funds apportioned for the Smithsonian Institution are only available for use in a manner consistent with Executive Order 14253, ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,’ and the fulfilment of the requests set forth in our August 12, 2025 letter.”

Bunch wrote a note to all his staff the following day, quietly affirming, once more, the organisation’s autonomy. “For nearly 180 years, the Smithsonian has served our country as an independent and nonpartisan institution committed to its mission – the increase and diffusion of knowledge – for all Americans. As we all know, all content, programming, and curatorial decisions are made by the Smithsonian.”

With JD Vance on the board of regents, along with Republican members of Congress, the question hovers: how long will 73-year-old Bunch survive in his position? “Lonnie knows his time is short,” one DC museum director told me. “It’s a question of how he decides to go, and of which hill he chooses to die on.”"

NASA says historic materials will be preserved as Goddard research library shuts down; WTOP, January 5, 2026

 Mike Murillo, WTOP ; NASA says historic materials will be preserved as Goddard research library shuts down

[Kip Currier: Multiple concerns with even this statement by NASA head Jared Isaacman, responding to concerns about the preservation and accessibility of historic NASA archival records, data, and documents.

Who will be making the determinations as to what is and isn't preserved? Are there trained staff involved in this process, i.e. persons with expertise in archival practices, collection development, document/data retrieval, etc.?

Keeping these records and data doesn't have to be an either/or choice. Isaacman said "preserving history is important, but NASA’s focus remains on future missions, including sending astronauts farther into space and returning to the moon to stay." We can do both: "preserve history" and advance work on "future missions".

Who knows today what seemingly inconsequential data in a notebook, or sound on an audiocassette recording, or document from the early days of space exploration may be key to solving an engineering design challenge or shedding light on a scientific conundrum at some later time that we can't foresee now. Watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)! 😏]

[Excerpt]

"The library at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, home to thousands of books and documents chronicling America’s space history, is closing in the coming months, raising concerns that rare records could be lost.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on X that every item will be reviewed before the closure as part of a facilities consolidation plan approved in 2022 under the Joe Biden administration.

“The physical library space at Goddard is closing as part of a long-planned facilities consolidation,” Isaacman said. He added that the goal is to digitize materials, transfer them to other libraries, or preserve them for historical purposes.

Isaacman pushed back on reports suggesting NASA might discard documents, calling that characterization misleading. Critics have warned that historic and technical records could disappear.

“At no point is NASA ‘tossing out’ important scientific or historical materials, and that framing has led to several other misleading headlines,” Isaacman wrote.

He said preserving history is important, but NASA’s focus remains on future missions, including sending astronauts farther into space and returning to the moon to stay. Researchers will continue to have access to the resources they need, he said."

NASA’s Rocky History Of Library Closures; NASA Watch, January 3, 2026

 Keith Cowing, NASA Watch; NASA’s Rocky History Of Library Closures

"Keith’s note: NASA has been closing its libraries for a long time. Budgetary and building issues are usually the prime reason. Usually, stuff gets moved around and put in storage for years until the storage costs mount and then a portion ends up in someone’s library – somewhere – and the rest gets shipped to some generic GSA warehouse – or thrown away. Now it is GSFC’s turn to go through this painful process – not only with their collection but also the NASA HQ library that was moved there when the HQ library was converted to a visitor center. They have assured NASA HQ that nothing valuable will be lost. NASA’s record in this regard is somewhat rocky. More below.

To be certain, a lot of the material is already online at places like The  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) or the Internet Archive or university libraries. But a lot of the material is NASA-generated and niche-oriented such that only a few copies – sometimes one copy – exists. A lot of it goes back to NACA days.

I took this picture (above) at NASA Ames while their library was being removed. I am told that NASA HQ has been assured that nothing of value will be thrown out and that important things that have not been electronically stored will be. But the budget pressures are strong.

Some of you may recall the time when Dennis Wingo and I did a diving catch of all the 1960s Lunar Orbiter program image tapes that were in a remote warehouse and JPL wanted to get rid of them. We started the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP). We drove the tapes up to NASA Ames in two large rental trucks and assembled a team of retirees and college kids to bring the data back (link to New York Times) from the past at resolutions simply impossible to achieve back in the day. And of course you recall the whole ‘lost Apollo 11 landing tapes’ thing.

So, as these libraries close, I hope everyone at GSFC please keeps their eyes open to assure that NASA is preserving this history and not throwing it out. And if they are not then let me know. Below are some earlier examples of controversial NASA library closures.

• Memo: The Army Is Closing A Library That NASA MSFC Paid For, (2019)
• GSFC Memo: NASA’s New Strategy: Close Its Reference Libraries (2011) related post
• NASA ARC Solicitation: Packing Dismantling, and Reconstruction of Main Technical Library, (2005) related post
• NASA ARC Internal Memo: Library Reshaping, (2005) related post
• NASA Ames Library “Downsizing” (2005) related post"

NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts; The New York Times, December 31, 2025

 Eric Niiler, The New York Times; NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts

[Kip Currier: As a life-long space aficionado (as just one example, I fondly recall as a boy my Dad waking me up so I could watch the 1972 Apollo 17 launch that occurred at 12:33 AM) and long-time proponent of libraries, archives, and museums as essential societal institutions and trusted keepers of our history and cultures, seeing this story today was truly stomach-turning.

How shameful and short-sighted for the Trump administration to unilaterally decide to close NASA's largest library. The items within that library's singular collections represent the collective space-faring history and legacy of every person, not just one transitory administration.]

[Excerpt]

"The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else.

Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away."

‘The Library of Congress’ Review: Corridors of Knowledge; The Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2025

 Michael Auslin , The Wall Street Journal; ‘The Library of Congress’ Review: Corridors of Knowledge

"When the president unexpectedly fired the librarian of Congress, a prominent legislator denounced the “open despotism which now rules at Washington.” The year was 1829, and as Andrew Jackson installed a political ally as librarian, it was Henry Clay who accused the president of being a threat to democracy. 

This is but one vignette from Jane Aikin’s comprehensive history “The Library of Congress” (Georgetown, 356 pages, $32.95), which shows how bare-knuckled domestic politics have often shadowed the crown jewel of America’s intellectual institutions. In April, the library turned 225 years old, secure in its position as one of the world’s largest libraries. It now houses approximately 178 million items, from ancient clay tablets to Stradivarius violins, from the Gutenberg Bible to ever-expanding digital records."

Inside the old church where one trillion webpages are being saved; CNN, November 16, 2025

 Hadas Gold , CNN; Inside the old church where one trillion webpages are being saved

"The Wayback Machine, a tool used by millions every day, has proven critical for academics and journalists searching for historical information on what corporations, people and governments have published online in the past, long after their websites have been updated or changed.

For many, the Wayback Machine is like a living history of the internet, and it just logged its trillionth page last month.

Archiving the web is more important and more challenging than ever before. The White House in January ordered vast amounts of government webpages to be taken down. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is blurring the line between what’s real and what’s artificially generated — in some ways replacing the need to visit websites entirely. And more of the internet is now hidden behind paywalls or tucked in conversations with AI chatbots.

It’s the Internet Archive’s job to figure out how to preserve it all."

Internet Archive’s legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost; Ars Technica, November 3, 2025

 ASHLEY BELANGER , Ars Technica; Internet Archive’s legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost

"This month, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine archived its trillionth webpage, and the nonprofit invited its more than 1,200 library partners and 800,000 daily users to join a celebration of the moment. To honor “three decades of safeguarding the world’s online heritage,” the city of San Francisco declared October 22 to be “Internet Archive Day.” The Archive was also recently designated a federal depository library by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who proclaimed the organization a “perfect fit” to expand “access to federal government publications amid an increasingly digital landscape.”

The Internet Archive might sound like a thriving organization, but it only recently emerged from years of bruising copyright battles that threatened to bankrupt the beloved library project. In the end, the fight led to more than 500,000 books being removed from the Archive’s “Open Library.”

“We survived,” Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told Ars. “But it wiped out the Library.”

An Internet Archive spokesperson confirmed to Ars that the archive currently faces no major lawsuits and no active threats to its collections. Kahle thinks “the world became stupider” when the Open Library was gutted—but he’s moving forward with new ideas."

White House Announces Comprehensive Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

 Graham Bowley Jennifer Schuessler and Robin Pogrebin , The New York Times; White House Announces Comprehensive Review of Smithsonian Exhibitions

[Kip Currier: No museum system is more quintessentially linked to "America's story" than the storied institutions that make up the Smithsonian archipelago. Worryingly, that story is under grave threat of being suppressed and rewritten by a Trumpian tidal wave of revisionism, erasure, and outright censorship of exhibition content.

Cultural heritage institutions -- and all Americans -- must unite in standing up against the risks to our collective history stemming from Trump's August 12, 2025 letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III asserting his intent to replace "divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions.”

Hands Off Our History!]

[Excerpt]

"The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it would begin a wide-ranging review of current and planned exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, scouring wall text, websites and social media “to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals.”

White House officials announced the review in a letter sent to Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian. Museums will be required to adjust any content that the administration finds problematic within 120 days, the letter said, “replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions.”

The review, which will begin with eight of the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, is the latest attempt by President Trump to try to impose his will on the Smithsonian, which has traditionally operated as an independent institution that regards itself outside the purview of the executive branch...

Mr. Trump’s focus on the Smithsonian began in March, when he issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” In it, he claimed that the Smithsonian, in particular, had “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” and that it promoted “narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.” Last month, bills were introduced in the House and Senate that would codify the executive order into law."

Trump Is Squandering the Greatest Gift of the Manhattan Project; The New York Times, August 12, 2025

Garrett M. Graff , The New York Times; Trump Is Squandering the Greatest Gift of the Manhattan Project

"The Manhattan Project was a towering achievement, one of the great stories of human effort and accomplishment. Yet the Trump administration has been systematically dismantling the culture of research that the Manhattan Project and World War II bequeathed us, a culture that propelled American prosperity.

At no other time in modern history has a country so thoroughly turned its back on its core national strengths. The very elements that made the Manhattan Project such a success are today under assault. With devastating cuts to science and health research, the administration is turning its back on a history of being powered and renewed by the innovation and vision of immigrants. What America may find is that we have squandered the greatest gift of the Manhattan Project — which, in the end, wasn’t the bomb but a new way of looking at how science and government can work together."

Library seeks community's help to document COVID-19 changes to daily life; University of North Georgia, May 21, 2020

Clark Leonard, University of North Georgia; Library seeks community's help to document COVID-19 changes to daily life

"Joy Bolt, dean of libraries at UNG, said part of the impetus for the project came when she and Allison Galloup, special collection and digital initiatives librarian, sought documents related to the 1918 flu pandemic.

"We were both somewhat surprised to find little in our collection on the subject," Bolt said. "This is one reason why we thought it was important for us to collect information about the experiences of our Northeast Georgia community for future scholars and researchers. It will be there when people want to look back on this time and see how things were for so many of us."

To submit your story, use the library's collection form and upload your file or email it to archives@ung.edu.

Galloup knows many people will wonder if their items are needed or worth sending. She has a simple message.

"Nothing is too mundane to share. We cannot do this without the community's help. While there may be similarities in all of our stories, each person's experience and perspective is unique," Galloup said. "We're asking you to share whatever you'd like, in whatever format you'd like. Those who would like to participate can submit videos, voice recordings, scans, photographs, or text documents.""

The Washington Post; National Archives says it was wrong to alter images; The Washington Post, January 18, 2020

Steve Thompson and Joe Heim , The Washington Post; National Archives says it was wrong to alter images

 

"Officials at the National Archives on Saturday said they had removed from display an altered photo from the 2017 Women’s March in which signs held by marchers critical of President Trump had been blurred.

 

In tweets on Saturday, the museum apologized and said: “We made a mistake.”

“As the National Archives of the United States, we are and have always been completely committed to preserving our archival holdings, without alteration,” one of the tweets said.

“This photo is not an archival record held by the @usnatarchives, but one we licensed to use as a promotional graphic,” it said in another tweet. “Nonetheless, we were wrong to alter the image.”...

Marchers in the 2017 photograph by Mario Tama of Getty Images were shown carrying a variety of signs, at least four of which were altered by the museum. A placard that proclaimed “God Hates Trump” had Trump blotted out so that it read “God Hates.” A sign that read “Trump & GOP — Hands Off Women” had the word Trump blurred. Signs with messages that referenced women’s anatomy were also digitally altered."

National Archives exhibit blurs images critical of President Trump; The Washington Post, January 17, 2020

Joe Heim , The Washington Post; National Archives exhibit blurs images critical of President Trump

 

""There's no reason for the National Archives to ever digitally alter a historic photograph," Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley said. "If they don't want to use a specific image, then don't use it. But to confuse the public is reprehensible. The head of the Archives has to very quickly fix this damage. A lot of history is messy, and there's zero reason why the Archives can't be upfront about a photo from a women's march."...

 

Karin Wulf, a history professor at the College of William & Mary and executive director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, said that to ensure transparency, the Archives at the very least should have noted prominently that the photo had been altered.

"The Archives has always been self-conscious about its responsibility to educate about source material, and in this case they could have said, or should have said, 'We edited this image in the following way for the following reasons,' " she said. "If you don't have transparency and integrity in government documents, democracy doesn't function.""

I am an Arctic researcher. Donald Trump is deleting my citations; Guardian, March 28, 2017

Victoria Hermann, Guardian; 

I am an Arctic researcher. Donald Trump is deleting my citations

"The consequences of vanishing citations, however, pose a far more serious consequence than website updates. Each defunct page is an effort by the Trump administration to deliberately undermine our ability to make good policy decisions by limiting access to scientific evidence.

We’ve seen this type of data strangling before.

Just three years ago, Arctic researchers witnessed another world leader remove thousands of scientific documents from the public domain. In 2014, then Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper closed 11 department of fisheries and oceans regional libraries, including the only Arctic center. Hundreds of reports and studies containing well over a century of research were destroyed in that process – a historic loss from which we still have not recovered. 

These back-to-back data deletions come at a time when the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. Just this week, it was reported that the Arctic’s winter sea ice dropped to its lowest level in recorded history. The impacts of a warming, ice-free Arctic are already clear: a decline in habitat for polar bears and other Arctic animals; increases in coastal erosion that force Alaskans to abandon their homes; and the opening up of shipping routes with unpredictable conditions and hazardous icebergs. 

In a remote region where data is already scarce, we need publicly available government guidance and records now more than ever before. It is hard enough for modern Arctic researchers to perform experiments and collect data to fill the gaps left by historic scientific expeditions. While working in one of the most physically demanding environments on the planet, we don’t have time to fill new data gaps created by political malice."

How to rethink what’s ‘top secret’ for the Internet age; Washington Post, 12/16/16

Dianne Feinstein, Washington Post; How to rethink what’s ‘top secret’ for the Internet age:

"Rooted in a paper-based era, the existing classification system has become so complex and distorted that it no longer serves its fundamental goals: sharing secrets with our allies and partners while safeguarding this information from adversaries who would do us harm...

We may never fully eliminate the tendency of reviewers to overclassify information. But by working to implement these solutions, we can begin to change the dynamic. At the heart of this issue are dedicated government employees who truly want to do the right thing, and there’s an obvious natural instinct to protect secrets. But classification should shield secrets, not bury them."

Christmas Tree Candles and Candle Holders - Web’s Largest Gallery of Historic Patents Shows How We Used To Decorate Our Trees; Huffington Post, 11/25/16

Tom Conrad, Huffington Post; Christmas Tree Candles and Candle Holders - Web’s Largest Gallery of Historic Patents Shows How We Used To Decorate Our Trees:

'Decorating with Christmas tree candles was in its commercial prime for about 50 years — from roughly 1870, gradually tapering off through the 1920s and 30s, although the U.S. Patent Office was still awarding patents for Christmas tree candle holders as late as 1945.

Studying patent drawings and reading the filings from the U.S. Patent Office is a good way to trace the design developments and get a feel for how the Christmas tree candle holders evolved through the years before they were overtaken by electric Christmas tree lights. The following selection is excerpted from our online Gallery of Christmas Tree Candle Holder Patents, which is the largest collection available on the web. Check out the gallery and see varieties of Christmas tree candle holders, clips and pendulums that are available to buy online."

The Blog That Disappeared; New York Times, 7/29/16

Roxane Gay, New York Times; The Blog That Disappeared:

"On June 27, Mr. Cooper’s Google account was deactivated, he has said. He lost 14 years of his blog archives, creative work, email and contacts. He has hired a lawyer and made complaints, and many of his readers and fans have tried to support his efforts. There is a petition circulating, urging Google to restore his work. Pen America, an organization that promotes free expression, has weighed in, saying that Mr. Cooper deserves a substantive response from Google.

Thus far, these efforts have been in vain. Google has not responded beyond saying there was a violation of the Terms of Service agreement. It has neither identified the specific violation nor indicated why it also deleted Mr. Cooper’s email account. It has not provided Mr. Cooper with the ability to download his personal information so he might rebuild his blog and email account elsewhere. In one interview, Mr. Cooper said he thought that the male escort ads might have led to his account’s being deactivated, but this has not been confirmed by the company.

When I contacted Google for further comment, I got a response that said, “We are aware of this matter, but the specific Terms of Service violations are ones we cannot discuss further due to legal considerations.” I asked about why Mr. Cooper’s Gmail account was also deleted and whether or not he would be able to retrieve the archive of his work, and I was directed to Google’s Terms of Service, Gmail Policy and Blogger Content Policy, which did not offer any useful specifics."

Unpublished Black History; New York Times, 2/1/16

Rachel L. Swarns, Darcy Eveleigh, and Damien Cave, New York Times; Unpublished Black History:

"Hundreds of stunning images from black history, drawn from old negatives, have long been buried in the musty envelopes and crowded bins of the New York Times archives.

None of them were published by The Times until now.

Were the photos — or the people in them — not deemed newsworthy enough? Did the images not arrive in time for publication? Were they pushed aside by words here at an institution long known as the Gray Lady?...

Every day during Black History Month, we will publish at least one of these photographs online, illuminating stories that were never told in our pages and others that have been mostly forgotten...

Many of these photographs, and their stories, are equally intriguing. But the collection is far from comprehensive. There are gaps, for many reasons."

‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Online Could Spread; New York Times, 8/5/15

Farhad Manjoo, New York Times; ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Online Could Spread:

"Proponents of the law also reacted skeptically to the claim that the right to be forgotten would be used by other countries to force content restrictions beyond those involving privacy.

“That’s nonsense,” said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy advocacy group. He argued there were ways to limit access to private information that would not conflict with free speech, and he noted that Google already had a process for global removal of some identifiable private information, like bank account numbers, social security numbers and sexually explicit images uploaded without the subject’s consent (known as “revenge porn.”).

“A global implementation of the fundamental right to privacy on the Internet would be a spectacular achievement,” said Mr. Rotenberg. “For users, it would be a fantastic development.”

Mr. Zittrain, of Harvard, pointed out that Google also removes content globally to abide by copyright law. When Google receives a takedown notice for linking to infringing content, it removes those links from all of its sites across the world. Couldn’t it do the same for private information?

The trouble with comparing copyright law to privacy, though, is that the United States and Europe broadly agree on what constitutes copyrighted content, but private information is far more nebulous."