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#44: Holocaust Museum Program Explores US Immigration Policies During 30s–40s

Prior to World War I, millions of Europeans immigrated to the United States. By the mid-1920s, the United States Congress had revised its immigration laws. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 set limits on the maximum number of quota immigrant visas that could be issued per year, and divided up those visas by country (so-called “national origins”).

Inspired by eugenics, the policy was designed to limit immigration of people considered “racially undesirable,” giving far fewer immigration opportunities to immigrants from southern and eastern Europe (where many Jews and Catholics lived) while banning immigration entirely from most of Asia.

In addition to high levels of xenophobia, the American people generally held isolationist views after World War I. The majority of Americans wished to remain neutral in the brewing European conflict during the 1930s. By September 1940 and after, however, a majority of Americans supported aiding Great Britain, even at the risk of getting involved in World War II. While most of this history has been well established, there has not been as much research done on responses to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s at the local level across the United States.

December 22, 1945 President Truman Orders Quota Preference for Displaced Persons

In the mid 2010s, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum launched an initiative called Americans and the Holocaust. The initiative included the museum’s first nationwide citizen history project: History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust. The project invites educators, students, and history buffs to research local newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s on various Holocaust-era events, and submit relevant findings for inclusion in a searchable online database.

Articles from History Unfolded reveal a variety of opinions and responses from individuals and groups around the United States. Many Americans were concerned by the growing refugee crisis after Germany annexed Austria in March 1938. One citizen historian found a striking political cartoon in the Pittsburgh Courier, a Black newspaper. The cartoonist drew attention to the hypocrisy he saw in the United States, with a government that appeared to welcome European refugees with open arms while simultaneously perpetuating racism and discrimination against Black Americans.

Generally, when the Black press covered Nazi persecution of Jews, it was almost universally done within the context of and comparison to racism and segregation in the United States. This kind of framing was seldom provided outside the Black press.

Another volunteer found an article in The American Eagle, the student newspaper of American University. Following Kristallnacht, an organized act of nationwide violence against the Jews in Nazi Germany in November 1938, the article cited a Student Opinion Surveys of American survey that “68.8 percent maintained this country should not offer a haven for Jewish refugees from Central Europe.”

On the other hand, an editorial in The Vassar Miscellany News student newspaper also following Kristallnacht stated that “a protest on the abstract plane is not enough. We can do more. We as students can give money to help the penniless refugees to reach a place of relative safety where they can patch together their shattered lives.”

Citizen historians submitted dozens of articles on the debate over the Wagner-Rogers bill of 1939, a bipartisan effort in Congress to allow 20,000 German refugee children into the United States outside of the existing immigration quotas.

One letter writer to The Washington Post argued that the effects of the Great Depression necessitated aiding the needy of the United States before assisting those abroad: “Help the American child. He deserves our help more than the German child.”

Another writer told the New York Herald Tribune, “How do you expect American young people to believe this is a land of tolerance, opportunity, and a place to be proud of, when you won’t let in even 20,000 youngsters?”

Both of these articles appear in the Americans and the Holocaust special exhibition in the museum’s lower level. They reflect a divided public on the matter of America’s role in helping refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. In a November 1938 poll, 94 percent of Americans disapproved of the Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany. However, several months later, approximately two-thirds of Americans opposed the Wagner-Rogers bill, which was never brought to the floor of Congress for a vote.

American attitudes toward refugees did not change dramatically after the United States entered World War II, even following news reports about the Nazi plan to kill all of Europe’s Jews. One major effort of the War Refugee Board, a government agency established in early 1944, was overseeing the establishment of a refugee camp at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York.

President Roosevelt identified these refugees as “guests” in order to circumvent the rigid immigration quota system. While some Americans welcomed the refugees, others, such as a Brooklyn Daily Eagle letter writer, “resent[ed] and vigorously protest[ed]” what they saw as an effort to throw open the doors of the country when “millions of America’s young men are being killed and maimed in distant places.”

Indeed, even after the liberation of concentration camps and the end of military conflict in Europe during World War II, public opinion on welcoming additional refugees into the United States remained virtually unchanged. A December 1945 poll revealed that 37 percent of poll respondents believed that the United States should admit fewer persons from Europe each year than before the war, while only 5 percent thought the United States should admit more people. The history of the American responses to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s raises important and challenging questions for what actions states and individuals should take today in the face of modern day refugee crises and instances of genocide.

Citation: polling data and other historical information comes from the Americans and the Holocaust online exhibition:  https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust

EDITOR’S NOTE: In a Pew Poll in March, 2022, 69 percent favored admitting thousands of Ukrainian refugees to the US; 29 percent opposed.
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Eric Schmalz is the Citizen History Community Manager at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He has been the community manager for the History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust project since November 2015. 

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#43: Latina Women’s Story Will Be Incorporated Into National Museum of the American People

The National Museum of the American People, in telling the story about the making of the American people, will incorporate the story of Hispanic and Latino Americans migrating and immigrating to the U.S. as well as those already on this land when taken over by the U.S.

The 2020 Census found that approximately 19 percent of the U.S. population is comprised of Hispanic or Latino Americans. The Latino population has grown considerably since 1960 when that population was fewer than 6 million, or merely 3.24 percent of the population. Latinos have and will continue to exert an enormous impact on social, cultural, political and economic life in the U.S.

Apart from First Peoples, every American, even if they were born in the U.S., can trace their lineage back to a different part of the world, some more recently than others. The 2020 Census reports that 13.7 percent of the U.S. population was born in another country. My mother and sister are part of that 13.7 percent; I am the first in my family to be born in the U.S. I am proud to be a first-generation Mexican American.

My mom and sister are part of the 25 percent of foreign-born immigrants from Mexico, the largest birthplace of origin for immigrants in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center. Growing up in an immigrant household, I failed to see my culture and family’s migration story represented in education, pop culture and other areas of American life. To assimilate into the U.S., Latinos should not have to sacrifice any aspect of our culture, and what makes us great as Americans. My mom, sister, and I are strong women who are proud of our heritage, and there are many other Latinas who have paved the way for us to live empowered lives in the U.S.

Image: Josue Ladoo Pelegrin, Unsplash

Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2009 gave me the first semblance of hope that I could contribute to my country, honor my ancestors, and find my place in the world. The child of Puerto Rican immigrants, Sotomayor was the first Latina to be confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court. Despite warnings of scrutiny at her confirmation, Sotomayor donned fire-engine red nails and semi-hoop earrings: a symbol of Latina adulthood and pride. Sotomayor’s refusal to sacrifice any aspect of her Latina identity on the bench is inspiring, and reminds Latinas like myself to show up unapologetically everyday. On my first day working at the Department of the Interior last year, I donned fire-engine-red nails – a reminder of those who came before me and to always “echarle ganas” – to always give my best effort in all my endeavors no matter what.

Accurately representing Latino history and culture in popular American spaces like museums matters. Therefore, a museum that will tell the story of all Americans, like the National Museum of the American People, is necessary. The National Museum of the American People will objectively tell the story of Latino immigrants, including Latinas, in all four chapters of the museum’s main exhibit. This museum will foster a sense of belonging to the U.S. by sharing the history of the mosaic of people that have come here and contribute to our national identity, like myself and my family.
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Sofia Casamassa is graduating from American University this Spring.

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#42: The 2020 Census and What It Means for the Future of the United States

The National Museum of the American People, in telling the story about the making of the American People, will tell the story of how people came to be Americans through immigration and migration.

The 2020 Census found that 13.7% of the United States population was born in another country, a statistic that mirrors the numbers of the 1920 Census. In 1920, the foreign-born population was 13.1%. Over the decades, the percentage of the foreign-born population has fluctuated, and with it, the culture and social landscape of America have changed as well.

The US Census in 2020 gave a snapshot of the current American People

According to World Population Review, in 2020 the five countries that account for the most immigrants in the U.S. are Mexico, India, China, the Philippines, and El Salvador. This is a sharp contrast to what immigration looked like one hundred years ago. Between 1880 and 1920, most immigrants came from Europe.

While some have said that immigration damages our country by introducing incompatible ideas and conflicting cultures, the exact opposite is true. Yes, immigrants bring their customs, traditions, and different cultures with them when they come to a new nation, but that is not by any means a bad thing. The Europeans who came during that 1880 to 1920 surge also brought their diverse traditions and cultures with them.

Immigration has frequently been a contentious issue throughout US history. Anti-immigrant sentiments led to policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigrants from entering the country in 1882.

While resistance to immigration is nothing new, it is something that we, as a nation, should understand. Immigration is not something that the American People should fear; on the contrary, it is what makes this country so uniquely great. The growing number of foreign-born Americans is a sign of a bright future for our country.

As then-Senator Barack Obama said in his address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”

The National Museum of the American People will embrace all of the American People.

Regardless of where we all come from, what cultures and customs we brought with us, and what traditions have been passed through our family’s from generation to generation. We are all Americans now.

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#41: From William Tucker to Barack Obama: Black Americans Throughout US History

The National Museum of the American People, in telling the story about the making of the American People, will incorporate the story of Black Americans from the beginning of slavery to the present.

William Tucker was born in 1624 in the Jamestown Colony in modern-day Jamestown, Virginia. According to experts of American history, Tucker was the first Black person born in what would become the United States of America. While enslaved from birth, little is known about Tucker’s life. At the time of his birth, there were 22 Africans in the Jamestown Colony.

National Landmark’s Marker

Over the following two centuries, as the British Colonies became the United States of America, the slave trade continued and the Black population continued to grow. As the country continued to develop, the institution of slavery began to be questioned more and more.

The total Black population in the U.S. was just under 4.5 million at the beginning of the 1860s, but only one-tenth of the Black population was free. The year 1861 saw the outbreak of the Civil War, during which 200,000 Black men took up arms and joined the Union Military. One of the most famous Black fighters of the war was Harriet Tubman, the famous abolitionist who served as a scout and a spy for the Union Army. Tubman’s work during the Civil War usually isn’t discussed as much as her heroism prior to the war when she worked with the Underground Railroad to free dozens of enslaved people.

The Reconstruction era which ended in 1877 saw the nation’s Black population approaching 6.5 million. During that era, Black Americans began gaining some political power. After the end of the Civil War, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified, codifying civil rights and citizenship for Black Americans. Black men were elected to Congress for the first time. Among the first Black representatives was Robert Smalls, a man who was born into slavery and stole a Confederate transport ship during the Civil War and delivered it to the Union.

As the Reconstruction era came to a close, the Jim Crow era began. The early part of the era saw leaders like John Mercer Langston, a Congressman from Virginia and the first dean of the law school at Howard University, continue the fight for progress. Later in the Jim Crow era, during the 1920s and 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance would see a new burst of Black culture with writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Georgia Douglas Johnson and Langston Hughes, the nephew of Congressman John Mercer Langston.

By 1960, the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, and the Black population was around 18.9 million. The Civil Rights Movement is known for the progress that was achieved, but the horrors of the era are often less spoken about. While the Movement pushed forward, Black men, women and children in the South fell victim to lynchings. Among them was 14-year-old Emmett Till who became a symbol of what the Movement was fighting against.

In 2008, the nation elected its first Black president when Sen. Barack Obama beat Sen. John McCain. During President Obama’s first term, the 2010 census showed that the Black population in the U.S. totaled 38.9 million, meaning that Black people represented 13% of the nation’s population. In 2020, the Black population rose to 46.9 million and their share of the population was 12.4%.

It is important to recognize the work of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis. As the Black population continues to grow in America, it is crucial to tell their central story in our nation’s history as the National Museum of African American History and Culture does. The National Museum of the American People will also tell that broader story of Black history. It will be told in the context of every group’s history of becoming Americans.

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#40: The U.S. Holocaust Museum and the National African American Museum Are Models for the National Museum of the American People

From left: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of the American People

In a series of blogs over the next several months, we will look at a broad range of subjects to show how the proposed National Museum of the American People compares to and diverges from our nation’s two best story-telling museums, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This blog simply lists the topics that will be discussed in future blogs. Topics will include:

  1. The feasibility studies that led to creation of the USHMM and the NMAAHC and how the NMAP will follow the lead of the African American feasibility study.
  1. How both museums tell their stories and how the NMAP will follow their examples.
  1. An exploration of the timeline to build both museums and why the NMAP will aim to follow the USHMM lead in this area.
  1. The USHMM is independent of the Smithsonian Institution; the NMAAHC is a part of the Smithsonian. This blog will discuss the governance structure that might work best for the NMAP.
  1. Both the NMAAHC and the USHMM have notable buildings in which they are housed and a local architecture firm (MTFA) has developed a rendering of what the NMAP could look like (see photos above). The role of the architect for these museums and how the building design relates to their stories will be discussed.
  1. As story-telling museums, the visitor at both existing museums are on a chronological path telling a dramatic story about significant historic events with a beginning, a middle and an end. Both museums employed the same exhibition designer. This blog will examine how both museums will inform how the NMAP tells its story.
  1. The USHMM and the NMAAHC used two different models to raise money to plan and build those museums. The NMAP plans to follow the lead of the USHMM to plan and build the museum.
  1. Both existing museums receive significant annual federal appropriations to operate their institutions. The NMAP plans to follow a different path without federal appropriations to operate the museum.
  1. This blog will explore the importance of location and a prime location being sought for the NMAP. The USHMM and the NMAAHC are both located In Washington between 14th and 15th Streets (renamed Raoul Wallenberg Place on the Holocaust Museum block). The African American Museum is on the north side of the National Mall and the Holocaust Museum is just to the south of the Mall, both prime locations.
  1. We will explore the visitor experiences at the NMAAHC and the USHMM and examine what that experience will be like at the NMAP.
  1. This issue will discuss the purpose of both existing museums and how they achieve it and will discuss the purpose of the NMAP and the plan to meet its purpose.
  1. The USHMM and the NMAAHC deal with the historic and contemporary ravages of genocide, racism, xenophobia, slavery and anti-Semitism. So will the NMAP.
  1. The USHMM has a scholarly Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. The NMAP will have a Center for the Advanced Study of the American People with connections to scholarly institutions throughout the nation and the world.
  1. Both the USHMM and the NMAAHC welcome school groups and provide curricula material focused on their respective subjects. The NMAP will have a vigorous program to welcome students on their visits to Washington and plans to have a national outreach program to help teach civics that incorporates the history of every group that has come to this nation from the first to the present no matter where on Earth they or their ancestors came from.
  1. How much do visitors to the USHMM and the NMAAHC see their own stories told in those museums? The NMAP will tell the story of every American group and visitors from every country will learn about peoples from their nations who became Americans.
  1. The African American Museum’s story starts in Africa and in Europe and then quickly transfers to the New World and the United States. The Holocaust story focuses on the nation’s where the Holocaust was perpetrated and brings in the United States along the way and finishes with the two nations where most Holocaust survivors settled, Israel and the U.S. That museum has relations with nations throughout Europe. The NMAP will have relationships with nations throughout the world with countries that fed people into our nation over the eons and centuries through today.
  1. Both the NMAAHC and the USHMM have had strong bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. The NMAP will endeavor to have bipartisan support from all of our nation’s political leaders.
  1. How do all three museums compare with the National Museum of American History?
  1. How do they compare with the National Museum of the American Indian?
  1. How do they compare with the proposed National Museum of the American Woman?
  1. There are proposed national museums for Asian Pacific, Irish and Latino Americans. How would they fit in with the NMAP?

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

 

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#39: Creating the National Museum of the American People Without Federal Funding

There are three funding phases anticipated to plan, build and operate the National Museum of the American People. None of them foresee using federal appropriations.

The first phase is to cover the cost of a study to explore the feasibility of creating the Museum, which we talked about in Blog #18. We estimate the cost would be up to $1.75 million for this study which would take approximately a year to produce. We plan to obtain support later this year from a handful of prospective major donors and foundations to cover this entire cost.

The second fundraising phase will be to raise all of the funds required to plan and build the Museum. Our model for this phase is the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum which raised all of its money to plan and build that museum from private sources. The work done in the feasibility study will let us know approximately how much money we will need for the NMAP and the time frame required to raise it. We expect it to be in the $600-800 million range.

While we will not be seeking federal appropriations for this phase, we will want legislation passed to create a self-funding entity charged with planning and building the Museum and raising all its funds required to do so. This legislation would officially designate the institution as a national museum.

That legislation would also do two other things to expedite the Museum. One would be a transfer of a prime piece of land in Washington from the National Park Service to the Museum entity. The particular plot we seek, the Banneker Overlook site, is already on NPS books as a site for a future national museum.

Another element of the legislation would allow the Museum to accept gifts from foreign governments. A senior U.S. diplomat, possibly a former secretary of state, could be recruited to obtain gifts of $1 million to $20 million, but with a cap so that no single nation could contribute an inordinate amount.

The Museum, telling about the origins of all Americans, can draw U.S. relationships with other nations closer. The heads of state from across the globe could be expected to participate in the Museum’s opening and the gifts from nations’ would be acknowledged in the Museum.

Another significant fund-raising element of the second phase is to seek seven-figure or higher gifts from selected individuals, foundations and corporations that have a special interest in their heritage, in civic education for all Americans and in strengthening our nation’s social fabric. And as the Museum tells the story of every customer of every corporation in the land, an association with the NMAP will carry a positive impact with every corporation’s customer base.

With significant gifts providing a solid financial base to begin planning and building the Museum, the last element of this phase is to engage in a broad national fund-raising effort to obtain gifts from all Americans in any amount.

Once the Museum entity is established by Congress, all money donated to that entity are considered gifts to the federal government and are ear-marked for the Museum. They would be tax deductible up to the limit laid out in the tax law.

The third phase is to fund the annual operating budget of the Museum. One element of this is to establish a major endowment that would be used for this purpose. So in addition to raising funds described in the second phase to plan and build the NMAP, funds from those sources would be applied to the endowment once the initial goals were reached.

In addition, income from Museum operations such as the book store, shops, restaurants, programs and facility rentals would be applied to cover operations.  There would also be a significant on-going fund-raising effort to fund particular programs at the Museum and an effort to obtain grants for other programs as well. There would be an ongoing membership program and other general fund-raising efforts.

One significant source of income could be from visitor fees, but the NMAP would initially plan to follow the lead of the Smithsonian Institution and the USHMM which are free for visitors.

Whether federal appropriations are ever provided to the NMAP in the future to defray annual operating expenses would be up to future congresses and the public, but the National Museum of the American People is not planning for that contingency.

But first things first. Phase One will begin later this year.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#38: Latino/Hispanic Story Is Incorporated into All 4 Chapters of National Museum of the American People

Flags representing the origins of the nine largest Latino/Hispanic groups in America:
Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Dominican, Columbian, Guatemalan, Ecuadoran, Honduran

The history of Americans of Hispanic/Latino descent is the only story, along with Native Americans, that will flow through all four chapters of the Making of the American People, the permanent exhibition of the National Museum of the American People from the first people in the Western Hemisphere through today.

In the Museum’s first chapter that goes from prehistory to the founding of the Jamestown colony in 1607, includes the story of first contact between natives and Europeans which is predominantly about Spanish and Portuguese explorers and settlers interacting with natives in the Western Hemisphere after 1492. This chapter includes the first Spanish arrival in what is now Puerto Rico in 1493 and the first Spanish settlement in what is now the United States at St. Augustine, FL in 1565.

In the second chapter from 1607 to 1820 the Museum’s story will focus on what is now the United States and all of its territories. During this period Hispanics moved into those lands, primarily in the U.S. Southwest. They also owned territory that would later be lost to the French who sold it to the newly established United States.  Likewise, Florida and the New Orleans area were Spanish territories that become part of the U.S. during this period.

In the third chapter from 1820 to 1924 the U.S. fought wars with both Mexico and Spain. As a result it acquired Hispanic lands, including California and most of the rest of the U.S. Southwest, from Mexico. Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines were obtained from Spain. Texas, which had gained independence from Spain on its own, was annexed by the U.S. during this chapter.

In the last chapter from 1924 through today, the Museum will tell the modern immigration stories from the Americas. These new arrivals have primarily come from Mexico, but large numbers have also come from other Hispanic nations and territories in the Caribbean, principally Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The story of their journeys across the nation’s borders is one of the major issues facing our nation today.

Supporting the Museum now are 25 Hispanic/Latino organizations representing Americans from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Cuba, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia as well as blanket organizations representing a cross section of all Hispanics or Latinos.

There are already 23 eminent scholars from universities across the U.S. supporting the Museum who focus on the study of Latino and Hispanic history and culture. They and others who will join in the future will help the Museum tell its story.

While there has been a call for a separate Smithsonian museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC devoted to Latino history and culture, in December the Smithsonian announced that it would create a permanent exhibition devoted to Latino history and culture in its National Museum of American History. That museum attracts more than 3 million visitors annually and that new permanent exhibition is scheduled to open in 2020.

The story of Hispanics/Latinos told in the context of the history of all those who have become Americans will attract all groups to see their own stories and better understand everyone else’s story. One of the primary goals of the National Museum of the American People is to bring all Americans together.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#37: You Don’t Have to Be a Smithsonian Museum To Make It in Washington, DC

One of the issues for the National Museum of the American People is whether it will be part of the Smithsonian Institution or independent of it. In this article we’ll look at some of Washington’s museums, both public and private, that are independent of the Smithsonian. In future blogs we’ll discuss Smithsonian museums and proposals for new museums in Washington.

National Gallery of Art

 While there are many great art museums in Washington, we’ll only touch on one here because it is on the National Mall, the National Gallery of Art. While it seems part of the Smithsonian it is actually independent of it. It consists of two major buildings, the neo classical West Building opened in 1941, the East Wing that opened in 1978, and the NGA sculpture garden that opened in 1999. This complex stretches from 3rd Street to 9th Street along the Mall on Constitution Avenue. The NGA has 4.3 million visitors a year and is asking this year for an appropriation of $137 million to operate.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The USHMM, located just off of the National Mall near the Washington Monument, has served about 1.7 million visitors a year since it opened. It receives an annual appropriation now of approximately $59 million a year. It is a public-private partnership like the Smithsonian and has recently undertaken a long-term $1 billion fund-raising effort. The museum opened in 1993 and was the first significant museum in Washington that tells its story in a chronological fashion. Early visitorship studies found that the average visitor spent about 3 hours walking through the museum’s story about the history of the Holocaust.

Spy Museum

The International Spy Museum opened in Washington in 2002 as a private museum and has had about 300,000 visitors a year since it opened. This Spring it is moving to a large new building a few blocks off of the National Mall on L’Enfant Plaza. It is just a block away from the NMAP’s favored site at the Banneker Overlook. The Spy Museum charges $23 for adults for visitors to walk through the history of the dramatic spying profession around the world.

Bible Museum

Another new museum in Washington opened in 2017, the Museum of the Bible. A private museum funded by the founders of the Hobby Lobby, it tells about the history of the bible. It charges $25 per adult and has had 500,000 visitors during its first six months.

National Geographic Museum

Operated by the National Geographic Society, its exhibits focus on natural history, culture and history along the lines of the society’s National Geographic Magazine. The society was established in 1888 and is a non-profit organization in Washington. Located in downtown DC, this museum charges $15 for adults to visit its exhibits.

Newseum

The Newseum, started by the Freedom Forum funded by the Gannett newspaper company, promotes the 1st Amendment clause to the Constitution calling for freedom of the press. It moved to its DC location on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Capitol Building in 2008. While it says it has 815,000 visitors a year and charges $25 for adults to visit, it announced in January that it sold its building and will close the museum.

National Archives

The National Archives is most famous for displaying the nation’s founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Archives attract 1 million visitors a year to its building across the street from the National Mall on Pennsylvania Avenue. The federal agency was born in 1934. Before that, federal documents were housed by the State Department and the Library of Congress. It is funded by federal appropriations.

Library of Congress

An arm of Congress, the three buildings of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill attract 1.6 million visitors, most of them to its Jefferson Building across the street from the Capitol and the Supreme Court. Holdings include one of the original Guttenberg Bibles. Its collections of books and documents is massive and it changes its displays periodically. Its reading room is one of the most interesting and famous rooms in the Nation’s capital. Its funding is from federal appropriations.

 National Museum of the US Navy

Operated by the U.S. Navy at the Navy Yard in Washington, DC, the museum chronicles the U.S. Navy from its beginning during the Revolution through today. Located on a military base poses some hurdles for visitors, but it is free and counts about 200,000 visitors a year. The Navy Yard is located adjacent to the Washington Nationals baseball stadium and has a Metro stop near the main gate of the Yard. While smaller collections of Navy memorabilia opened in 1865 soon after the Navy Yard opened, the current museum opened in 1963.

German American Heritage Museum

Located in a townhouse in the Penn Quarter of downtown Washington, this museum focuses on the heritage of all Americans of German descent. The museum is free and is operated by the German American Heritage Foundation. It opened in 2010.

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

This museum chain opened its Washington branch in 2007. It features wax likenesses of U.S. presidents, first ladies, cultural icons and famous people from music, sports, media and entertainment. Located downtown, it costs $22 per adult ($18 online) for tickets.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#36: NMAP Will Explore a Peopling of America Program to Mark Significant US Immigration Sites

A Peopling of America program would consist of scholars at the National Museum of the American People working with National Park Service officials to identify sites throughout the nation where events of significant migration and immigration history took place. The sites would be marked with special plaques designating them as “Peopling of America National Historic Landmarks.”

The most famous immigration site in America is Ellis Island, although the ancestors of most people in our nation came before Ellis Island opened in 1892, after it closed in 1954, came through other ports, or were already on land that the U.S. took over. On the West Coast, for example, Angel Island, not far from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay, is where many immigrants from Asia arrived in the United States.

As sites are designated, and markers placed, Peopling of America themed maps could be created for the public based on regional designations and specific ethnic designations. Members of ethnic groups could tour the nation to see first hand where people from their homelands landed in the U.S. Families could tour their regions to learn about the special places where different peoples first arrived to become Americans.

The Peopling of America idea was initiated by Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka 20 years ago but was never implemented. With heightened interest in genealogy and using DNA to trace ancestors, this would be another way to trace one’s personal roots.

The Peopling of America National Historic Landmarks would also be used to designate original settlements and paths that were followed by groups as they moved across the country. The Landmarks will describe the key events in the immigration and migration histories of these groups.

The Peopling of America program will provide a basis for the preservation and interpretation of the movements of groups that shaped the nation, including groups that arrived on the land before our nation existed. The process could also lead to more structures and places nominated to be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Significant sites of First Peoples and the sites of both early and current tribal cultures would be marked. Trails leading westward such as the Mormon Trail, the Trail of Tears and the Santa Fe Trail could be designated for their role in the peopling of America. So too could the Underground Railroad which was followed by Southern slaves to free themselves in the North and the actual railroads that helped to move the population center of the U.S. westward.

Sites all along the Canadian and Mexican borders with the U.S could be marked as could ports and beaches throughout the U.S. and its territories.

By making Americans more aware that the places that mark our immigration and migration journeys are all around us, the National Museum of the American People will enhance our understanding of that central aspect of our nation’s uniqueness.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People

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#35: Genes Tell About Our Ancestors’ Past Wanderings Across Our Planet

The National Museum of the American People could explore having Museum visitors participate in a DNA contribution program that could enable researchers to trace that visitor’s ancestors.

Some commercial DNA programs have become well known in recent years, such as Ancestry, 23 and Me and Familytree.com, as more people search for their personal roots.

Of those, Ancestry.com uses the world’s largest consumer DNA data base and it has a tie-in to the genealogical data base of more than 3 billion persons operated by Family Search, an organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Perhaps the Museum’s program tie in with the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project. The results of that project could be immensely helpful to the Museum in telling its story. As National Geographic reported, for decades, the primary clues to the human story came from scattered bones and artifacts. Now, scientists have found a record of ancient human migrations in the DNA of living people.

While helping to tell the first chapter of the Museum’s story starting some 20,000 years ago with the first humans arriving in the Western Hemisphere, the information from these DNA studies will also tell the migration stories of the ancestors of those contributing the DNA.

The National Geographic’s Genographic Project uses advanced genetic and computational technologies to analyze historical patterns in DNA from participants around the world. Launched in 2005, the project’s goals are to gather and analyze research data in collaboration with indigenous and traditional peoples, and to educate the general public through participation in the project where they learn their own deep ancestry.

The DNA test is done from a swab of saliva from the donor’s mouth. The DNA found in that swab is then tested for nearly 300,000 identifiers, also known as “markers,” selected to provide ancestry-relevant information. The test measures the genetic markers passed down through the generations from mother to child. For men they also look at the markers passed down from father to son.

Everyone’s DNA is tested against 250,000 ancestry-markers from around the world to discover the regional affiliation of a person’s ancestry. While modern humans started some 200,000 years ago in Africa, they have spread around the globe following thousands of diverse branches. But each branch can be traced back to their origins in Africa.

For the National Museum of the American People, those stories will begin as humans begin flowing into the Western Hemisphere and begin to form tribal groups and civilizations throughout North and South America. The groups in the hemisphere remain isolated from peoples in the rest of the world for about 20 millennia until there is contact with peoples from Europe, Asia and Africa starting a little more than 500 years ago.

DNA research will continue to fill in the many blanks of our diverse past and present and will help tell who we are, where we came from and when it happened.

This blog is about the proposed National Museum of the American People which is about the making of the American People. The blog will be reporting regularly on a host of NMAP topics, American ethnic group histories, related museums, scholarship centered on the museum’s focus, relevant census and other demographic data, and pertinent political issues. The museum is a work in progress and we welcome thoughtful suggestions.

Sam Eskenazi, Director, Coalition for the National Museum of the American People