Like many Americans, curators at the National Museum of American History were shocked last Jan. 6, when a procedural vote representing the peaceful transfer of power devolved into a violent insurrection.
At dawn the next day, they went to work.
One curator scoured the Mall for remnants of the uprising, gathering items that included discarded placards and a small whip shoved into a trash bin. As the country marks the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the museum continues to collect objects. Included in the 80 already acquired are handmade signs saying “Drain the GOP” and “We demand a fair election!,” military insignia from those who protected the Capitol in the months after the attack, a protective vest worn by a freelance photojournalist and the suit a congressman from New Jersey wore when he helped clean up the debris. Dozens more items are in the process of being accessioned.
The effort is one of the most challenging — and most significant — undertaken by the country’s flagship history museum.
“If we believe that United States history and teaching it, saving it, preserving it and sharing it can help continue the democratic experiment, which is still one of the
longest-running in the history of the world, then it is one of the most challenging times,” museum director Anthea Hartig said.
Curators are working with law enforcement and political partners to acquire other artifacts, including the official tally of the vote that certified the 2020 election and pieces of evidence being used in the investigations, Hartig said. The coronavirus pandemic — and the ongoing federal criminal investigation and the work of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol — have slowed their work, Hartig said. But they are confident that more will be acquired.
A sign collected by the museum reads, “We’re Right We’re Free We’ll Fight You’ll See,” and on the reverse side: “Democrats are a 3rd World Political Party.” (Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History)
“Seeing those objects — the homemade, the handmade, whatever they are — and knowing what happened that day and knowing that we are still trying to understand what happened that day, is incredibly powerful,” Hartig said. “It will help future generations understand how fragile democracy is, and certainly was that day.”
The Smithsonian is already hunting for impeachment artifacts. Senators, please hand over your fidget spinners.
Collecting is a laborious process that requires a steady stream of phone calls, texts and email messages as well as Zoom and in-person meetings, said Shannon Perich, curator of the History of Photography Collection, who began crafting a collecting plan on Jan. 6. Early networking led her to freelance photographer Madeleine Kelly, 24, now a graduate student based in Germany, who donated the protective vest she wore when she was attacked with a knife by a woman upset that Kelly was photographing participants’ faces.
Kelly said it is surreal to think her name and story are now part of the museum.
“I have mixed feelings,” Kelly said about her donation. “Something terrible happened to me for this to happen. It’s kind of indescribable in a weird way.”
Kelly flew to Washington from Denver on the morning of Jan. 6 to cover what she thought would be a march and protests. It was the first time she wore the vest, which she had bought for about $650 to replace an older one. She layered it over one jacket and under another, she said, to try to be inconspicuous. Despite being ripped by a knife, the vest is still usable, Kelly said. But her grandmother wants to buy her a replacement.
“My grandmother said it was too good an opportunity to pass up,” Kelly said.
The vest illustrates the role of photography and the experiences of photographers, central themes of Jan. 6, Perich said. “When we collect for a story, we look for objects that have multiple perspectives,” she added. Kelly’s vest also contributes to stories about women in journalism, about the vital role of journalism in society and about its dangers. The fact that photographers needed military-grade protective gear is important to document, she said.
The Jan. 6 committee: What it has done and where it is headed
District resident Pat Savoy emailed military history curator Frank Blazich and offered the National Guard insignia that Savoy’s son, Noah, had collected while he was providing refreshments to those who guarded the perimeter. Blazich wanted the patches and pins for several reasons: They show how security was needed for the inauguration and for months afterward, and they represent units from across the country and from combat operations in Afghanistan and Syria.
“Essentially the same men and women who went overseas for the war on terror to defeat threats to our nation’s security now found themselves guarding their nation’s Capitol from domestic threats,” Blazich said.
Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 clash with police and security forces. (Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images)
The museum is not planning an exhibition on the events of Jan. 6 in the near future, Hartig said, but it is digitizing the items to make them accessible online, a priority during the pandemic, when museum visits have decreased. In addition, she said curators are still working out how to frame the story. Initially they thought they would feature some of the protest signs in the exhibition on American democracy, which has a rotating roster of protest posters from various events.
“We decided no, we can’t put those side by side. The March on Washington in 1963, the Poor People’s Campaign, whatever march it is, you pick one, was not intended to violently overthrow the nation’s Capitol and to interrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
“It’s a good time to be slightly cautious and to give ourselves a bit of space and grace,” Hartig added. “We are not shying away from telling the story, or from how important it is to document it. But we don’t even have a shared common language about what happened that day.”
At dawn the next day, they went to work.
One curator scoured the Mall for remnants of the uprising, gathering items that included discarded placards and a small whip shoved into a trash bin. As the country marks the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the museum continues to collect objects. Included in the 80 already acquired are handmade signs saying “Drain the GOP” and “We demand a fair election!,” military insignia from those who protected the Capitol in the months after the attack, a protective vest worn by a freelance photojournalist and the suit a congressman from New Jersey wore when he helped clean up the debris. Dozens more items are in the process of being accessioned.
The effort is one of the most challenging — and most significant — undertaken by the country’s flagship history museum.
“If we believe that United States history and teaching it, saving it, preserving it and sharing it can help continue the democratic experiment, which is still one of the
longest-running in the history of the world, then it is one of the most challenging times,” museum director Anthea Hartig said.
Curators are working with law enforcement and political partners to acquire other artifacts, including the official tally of the vote that certified the 2020 election and pieces of evidence being used in the investigations, Hartig said. The coronavirus pandemic — and the ongoing federal criminal investigation and the work of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol — have slowed their work, Hartig said. But they are confident that more will be acquired.
A sign collected by the museum reads, “We’re Right We’re Free We’ll Fight You’ll See,” and on the reverse side: “Democrats are a 3rd World Political Party.” (Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History)
“Seeing those objects — the homemade, the handmade, whatever they are — and knowing what happened that day and knowing that we are still trying to understand what happened that day, is incredibly powerful,” Hartig said. “It will help future generations understand how fragile democracy is, and certainly was that day.”
The Smithsonian is already hunting for impeachment artifacts. Senators, please hand over your fidget spinners.
Collecting is a laborious process that requires a steady stream of phone calls, texts and email messages as well as Zoom and in-person meetings, said Shannon Perich, curator of the History of Photography Collection, who began crafting a collecting plan on Jan. 6. Early networking led her to freelance photographer Madeleine Kelly, 24, now a graduate student based in Germany, who donated the protective vest she wore when she was attacked with a knife by a woman upset that Kelly was photographing participants’ faces.
Kelly said it is surreal to think her name and story are now part of the museum.
“I have mixed feelings,” Kelly said about her donation. “Something terrible happened to me for this to happen. It’s kind of indescribable in a weird way.”
Kelly flew to Washington from Denver on the morning of Jan. 6 to cover what she thought would be a march and protests. It was the first time she wore the vest, which she had bought for about $650 to replace an older one. She layered it over one jacket and under another, she said, to try to be inconspicuous. Despite being ripped by a knife, the vest is still usable, Kelly said. But her grandmother wants to buy her a replacement.
“My grandmother said it was too good an opportunity to pass up,” Kelly said.
The vest illustrates the role of photography and the experiences of photographers, central themes of Jan. 6, Perich said. “When we collect for a story, we look for objects that have multiple perspectives,” she added. Kelly’s vest also contributes to stories about women in journalism, about the vital role of journalism in society and about its dangers. The fact that photographers needed military-grade protective gear is important to document, she said.
The Jan. 6 committee: What it has done and where it is headed
District resident Pat Savoy emailed military history curator Frank Blazich and offered the National Guard insignia that Savoy’s son, Noah, had collected while he was providing refreshments to those who guarded the perimeter. Blazich wanted the patches and pins for several reasons: They show how security was needed for the inauguration and for months afterward, and they represent units from across the country and from combat operations in Afghanistan and Syria.
“Essentially the same men and women who went overseas for the war on terror to defeat threats to our nation’s security now found themselves guarding their nation’s Capitol from domestic threats,” Blazich said.
Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 clash with police and security forces. (Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images)
The museum is not planning an exhibition on the events of Jan. 6 in the near future, Hartig said, but it is digitizing the items to make them accessible online, a priority during the pandemic, when museum visits have decreased. In addition, she said curators are still working out how to frame the story. Initially they thought they would feature some of the protest signs in the exhibition on American democracy, which has a rotating roster of protest posters from various events.
“We decided no, we can’t put those side by side. The March on Washington in 1963, the Poor People’s Campaign, whatever march it is, you pick one, was not intended to violently overthrow the nation’s Capitol and to interrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
“It’s a good time to be slightly cautious and to give ourselves a bit of space and grace,” Hartig added. “We are not shying away from telling the story, or from how important it is to document it. But we don’t even have a shared common language about what happened that day.”
