The genesis for the idea to build a new national museum occurred in 1998 when the director of the Museum project, Sam Eskenazi, walked by the Agriculture Department headquarters building along the National Mall in Washington. It is the only office building on the National Mall. He asked himself, “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. He 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.
In February, 2007 after he retired, Sam began work on a formal proposal to build the museum. In March, he took the proposal to the Immigration and Ethnic History Society's annual meeting in Minneapolis, which is held in conjunction with the Organization of American Historians annual meeting. He spoke briefly and met with some historians about the proposal. Some of the scholars suggested changes for the history portion of the proposal and overall the response was encouraging.
The original proposal called for Congress to establish the museum and to place it in the Agriculture Department headquarters building. In June, Sam took the proposal to a variety of Congressional offices and met with representatives of the National Park Service, U.S. Commission on Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission. The Congressional Members and staff liked the idea of the museum, but urged him to first call for a national commission to study the museum. The agencies suggested more sites including the Bannaker Overlook site.
At the beginning of 2009, Sam began to form a coalition of ethnic, minority and nationality groups to support the Museum. The formation of the museum's supporters was announced in early 2011. Later that year, Rep. Jim Moran introduced a bipartisan resolution in the House calling for a study commission. In the 113th Congress, Mr. Moran's resolution, H. Con. Res. 27, had 48 bipartisan cosponsors.
In 2003, Sam retired from a career in the federal government that included serving as the director of public information of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for eight years, including for six years before it opened and for two years afterwards. His first federal job was as the first director of public affairs for the Institute of Museum Services. He also served at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, two Treasury Department agencies and in the U.S. Army, including a year in Vietnam where he led a 75-man platoon.