National Museum of the American People

Overview

Proposed by the Coalition for the National Museum of the American People, composed in 2012 of more than 150 ethnic, national and genealogical private non-profit organizations, the museum "will tell the story of every American ethnic and cultural group coming to this land and nation from every corner of the world, from the first people through today." The organization announced this project at a press event in February, 2011 and began gathering support in Congress. In 2011 and 2013, Rep. Jim Moran and other cosponsors introduced into the United States Congress legislation that would support a bipartisan study on the creation of such a museum without using any federal taxpayer funds.

History

The Coalition for the National Museum of the American People was created by Sam Eskenazi, former Director of Public Information for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. According to Eskenazi, the concept for the museum originated when he was passing the Jamie L. Whitten Building, the only office building on the National Mall. According to Eskenazi:

I asked myself, “If this were a museum, what kind of museum could it be?” The answer: a museum that would tell the stories of all of the peoples coming to this land. I came up with a name for the museum on the spot - the National Museum of the American People. It is a testament to the need for the museum that many people, when told about the proposal, were surprised that such a museum doesn't already exist.

On September 11, 2008, Congressman Maurice Hinchey introduced a bill, H.R. 6883, into the 110th United States Congress to "establish a commission to study the establishment of the National Museum of the American People, ....". However, the bill did not leave the United States House Committee on Natural Resources. Eskenazi then created a coalition of private not-for-profit ethnic and nationality groups to support the creation of the museum in 2009 and 2010. In February, 2011 these organizations announced a formal launch of the project at a press event in Washington, D.C. Shortly thereafter the Washington City Paper named it the "Best Museum That Doesn't Exist Yet" in the newspaper's "Best Of D.C. 2011" issue.

In May 2011, Congressman Jim Moran agreed to be the originating sponsor of a resolution calling for a study group, expressing concerns about balkanization of the National Mall. In partnership with Eskenazi's Coalition for the National Museum of the American People, Moran introduced into the 112th United States Congress on July 7, 2011, a concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 63, "supporting the formation of a bipartisan Presidential Commission to study the establishment of a National Museum of the American People". The resolution was referred to the United States House Committee on Natural Resources, but did not leave the Committee. On March 19, 2013, Moran reintroduced the resolution (H. Con. Res. 27) into the 113th Congress.

One site proposed for the museum is an overlook at the south end of L'Enfant Promenade that now contains the National Park Service's Benjamin Banneker Park, a half mile (800 m) south of the Smithsonian Institution's "Castle" on the National Mall.

Museum contents and exhibitions

The Museum project creators have proposed a number of components to be considered for a final institution. Among these are a permanent exhibition (tentatively called The Story of the American People), a Center for Advanced Studies drawing upon a group of over 50 scholars who have offered their support to the project, a National Genealogical Center, an Education and Resource Center and an archival library of American Migration and Immigration.

In addition the permanent collection is intended to be presented in a narrative manner, told as four chapters:

Chapter I, The First Peoples Come, 20,000 before present (est.)-1607
Chapter II, The Nation Takes Form, 1607-1820
Chapter III, The Great In-Gathering, 1820-1924
Chapter IV, And Still They Come, 1924–Present