A key question for Members of Congress to ask would be about the impact of the National Museum of the American People on any regional history, ethnic and minority museums in their state and districts.
In the legislation being proposed to establish the National Museum of the American People, there is a provision to work with the Institute of Museum and Library Services for that agency to establish a grant and scholarship program for state and local ethnic museums, with first-year funding set at $15 million.
The NMAP will have a positive impact on those local museums with respect to their visitorship levels, fundraising, collections, as well as the quality of their exhibitions, education programs, and any research that they undertake. That impact should begin before the NMAP opens, and carry on into the distant future.
Two years after the African American Museum opened, Stateline, in 2018, reported the following:
Black history museums and historic sites are flourishing across the South, riding a wave of interest in African-American history that has made a stunning success of the two-year-old National Museum of African American History and Culture in the nation's capital.
In past years, museums documenting the civil rights struggle and memorializing lynching victims have opened in Jackson, Mississippi, and Montgomery, Alabama. In Nashville, a museum focusing on African-American music is scheduled to open next year.
And in Charleston, South Carolina, construction is set to begin next year on a projected $75 million black history museum that will stand on the former site of Gadsden's Wharf, the disembarkation point for more than 100,000 Africans brought to America and sold into slavery.
At a time when attendance at some large museums is flagging — 12 of the 20 biggest U.S. museums saw flat or lower attendance in 2017 compared with 2016 — the swirl of activity involving black history stands out.
We look forward to reading similar articles with respect to local history, ethnic and minority museums throughout the nation after the NMAP opens.
There has been a proliferation of Holocaust museums and memorials throughout the United States since the Holocaust Museum was first announced. There are 31 states with such structures now, including 42 memorials and 44 museums. There has also been a proliferation of Holocaust courses taught in universities nationwide as well as high school history units.
In a poll conducted for the Women's History Museum commission, more than 98 percent said that they believed an American Museum of Women's History located in Washington, DC "would have an overall positive impact on regional women's history museums." Academics and museum professionals also believed that a national museum on American women's history "would be an opportunity to promote rather than hinder the ongoing scholarship, research, and education being conducted in the field of women's history."
The Women's History Museum commission concluded that "there is a perceived responsibility on the part of the American Museum of Women's History to collaborate and elevate the work being done by other women's history museums. It found that there is "no question that an American Museum of Women's History would benefit rather than hinder other regional museums. Strong and active partnerships between a centralized national museum and regional museums would, in fact, be mutually beneficial."
In a survey of 72 African American museums undertaken by the African American Museum commission, it concluded that there was a clear mandate to move forward with plans to create a national museum. Eighty-seven percent favored that proposition and none opposed it. About 12 percent expressed concerns over attendance, collections and funding. Among the benefits they foresaw were collaborating on partnerships, training opportunities, and sharing collections displaying temporary exhibits prepared by the National Museum.
In June, 2023, the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced awards totaling $6 million in museum grants for African American history and culture. The 34 grantees will match these awards with an additional $8 million in non-federal funds.
Every state has a state historical society or association and 49 states have a state history museum. Many cities and counties throughout the nation also have historical societies and museums telling their histories. The National Museum of the American People will assist state and local institutions by helping them tell their stories about the peoples in their areas, starting with the first humans and then all others who came to settle in those locales. The NMAP, working with regional museums, will enhance all Americans' knowledge of who they were, where they came from, when they came, how they got there and the contributions of various groups.
There are many ethnic, nationality and minority museums throughout the nation that focus on their local populations. The NMAP will be an invaluable asset to assist them as they tell their stories.
The NMAP will also encourage Americans everywhere to visit and support their local story-telling museums of all stripes. It will help them with research, exhibitions, training, education programs and, a grants program to assist with a range of museum needs in conjunction with the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The NMAP will want to create a significant partnership program with many regional institutions to create its "Peopling of America" program that will designate important historical sites across our nation. These important immigration and migration sites could be identified and marked by their nearby museums, who would receive attention from visitors to those sites.
This Peopling of America component would consist of museum scholars 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."
Peopling of America 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 firsthand where people from their homelands landed in the US. Families could tour their regions to learn about the special places where different peoples first arrived to become Americans. State and local museums could be a source for distribution of these maps.
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 or migrated across the country.
The Peopling of America program will provide a basis for the preservation and interpretation of the movements of groups that shaped the nation, including those 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.
Partnering with the National Museum of the American Indian and local tribal groups, significant 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 roles 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 US westward.
Sites all along the Canadian and Mexican borders with the US could be marked, as could ports and beaches throughout the US and its territories.
By making Americans more aware of those places all around us that have marked our journeys, the National Museum of the American People will enhance our understanding of that central aspect of our nation's uniqueness. It will significantly assist state, local and regional history, ethnic and minority institutions throughout the nation.