How The Smithsonian’s Rapid-Response Teams Are Documenting U.S. History In Real Time

Soon after pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, a rapid-response team of federal employees got busy. These were neither law enforcement nor military personnel, nor were they members of any medical emergency unit.

This quick-action team was made up of historians and curators from the National Museum of American History (NMAH), one of 19 museums in the Smithsonian Institution’s complex.

Tracing the American experience from colonial times to the present, the nation’s premier history museum contains more than three million historical objects—including the Star-Spangled Banner and the stovepipe hat Abraham Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theatre on the night he was assassinated. There’s also an endless array of fun cultural touchpoints, from Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz to Duke Ellington’s sheet music to a replica of Julia Child’s home kitchen.

In the broad sense, the “People’s History Museum” collection explores the evolution of the American identity, which can be messy, painful and at times unflattering. “It stems from our long history of collecting around political and social and cultural change,” said Andrea M. Hartig, the museum’s director. “We try to tell intersectional, compelling, complicated stories of our past so that we can create a better future together.”

We often don’t necessarily get that immediate sense of history being made around us, said Hartig. “And sometimes, like this past year of 2020, you know when you’re living in the gristmill of history,” she said. “You’re feeling very viscerally that you’re living through historic times.”

Public outreach always plays a critical part in the museum’s collection process, but the task has been more difficult in recent times. “We had to change almost all of our direct collecting methodologies due to the pandemic and keeping people safe,” said Hartig. “That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to actively participate with communities to help understand and document those intense moments of key political change.”

Days after the siege on the Capitol, the museum invited everyday Americans to help collect items and artifacts related to the protest rallies.

“As stewards of the nation’s leading history museum, we want to hear from you,” said Hartig in a statement. “Please safely save any materials that could be considered for future acquisition and send photos and brief descriptions of these objects to 2020ElectionCollection@si.edu. Your contributions help us in our goal of educating each new generation about the historical roots of our moment and empowering them to shape our future.”

Among the items collected so far: Dozens of protest signs of various sizes, several small American flags and a banner, some branded 2020 Trump Keep America Great merchandise and numerous smaller documents ranging from pamphlets and handouts to business cards.

“It’s a continuation of our field collecting, really, in the most surreal and complicated and challenging times,” said Hartig, noting that protocols were in place for the morning after the insurrection thanks to lessons learned in part from events like 9/11. “Again, one of those hugely communally felt moments of intense pain and horror and surprise.”

The past year has kept Hartig’s team particularly busy. In April 2020, in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis, the history museum formed a rapid-response task force to document the pandemic. Curators began collecting and preserving tangible materials, including objects, photographs and documents for the museum’s permanent collections.

“These materials will help future historians and visitors make sense of the challenges of the pandemic, as well as the resilient and innovative spirit of the country.” New materials would join long-standing existing collections on past epidemics and pandemics,” said the museum in a statement issued at the time.

Two months later, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, rapid-response teams from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History and the Anacostia Community Museum were deployed collectively to Lafayette Square to salvage from the large canvas of protest posters that had been plastered across barriers and fencing the White House had erected around its perimeter.

“Recognizing that the tragic killing of George Floyd has spurred a transformative time in U.S. history, the Smithsonian Institution is collecting today so that the world, in the present and future, can understand the role that race has played in our complicated 400-year history,” per a statement at the time.

When chronicling protests or other public events, it’s vital that curators secure items before they can be discarded or damaged by weather. Smithsonian teams spent hours interviewing protesters, hearing stories and collecting artifacts from Lafayette Square.

One difference when documenting a peaceful protest, say museum curators, is that it’s sometimes possible to speak directly with participants and request objects that they may not be ready to part with in the moment but may consider sending to the museum at a later date.

While the National Museum of American History can’t keep every donated item, there’s a good chance each contribution will eventually find a home. “If we don’t collect them for our permanent collection, we’ll make them available for other museums or historical societies,” said Hartig, noting that the Smithsonian historians work very closely with Library of Congress, the National Archives and the Capitol Historical Society.

“The Senate and the House Representatives also have their own teams of historians,” she added. “So it is a very rich community of people who are trying to make sure that we document this, so that future generations can understand it.”

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