This report will tell what the National Museum of the American People is and the story about the making of the American People that it will depict. It will enumerate why our nation needs this museum now and who supports it. Then it will review favored sites for it and outline a course of action to achieve the goal of establishing the NMAP.
The National Museum of the American People will be a significant institution in our nation's capital. Here's a summary of what is in this report:
The story in the National Museum of the American People begins with the first humans in the Western Hemisphere more than 20,000 years ago and courses through a dynamic history to today.
This report differentiates between two types of museums: one where the museum's collection is at the core of the institution and another with story-telling at the center. The NMAP is a story-telling museum and will follow the models of our nation's two great story-telling museums, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture which take their visitors along a chronological path.
The NMAP will present the story in its permanent exhibition using a variety of media, in a framework that will encourage reflection as visitors absorb the story. The exhibition will be geared for school children as well as adults.
The story will be told in four large museum gallery spaces:
The museum will tell where people who became Americans came from, why they left their homeland, how they got here, when they arrived, where they first settled, who was already here, what they encountered, where they moved after they arrived, how they became Americans, what they contributed and how they transformed our nation. The NMAP will include the stories of those already on this land when the US took it over. And it will depict how the nation's doors dramatically opened . . . and closed . . . to new arrivals.
The NMAP's permanent exhibition will end at a Memorial Hall in remembrance of each American's own first ancestors who made the trip across oceans and continents to this land and over time became Americans.
The National Museum of the American People will incorporate a variety of components including those under the museum's Institute of the American People.
Permanent exhibition: The Making of the American People, collections, special exhibitions, traveling and online exhibitions, restaurants, bookstore and gift shop, and museum education programs.
Center for the Advanced Study of the American People, Archive and Library of American Migration and Immigration, public programs, National Ancestry Center, Education Resource Center, film center, Peopling of America Center.
Facility support, fundraising, budget and finance, human resources, legal support, legislative liaison and protocol, docents and volunteers, security and public relations.
Two basic governing structures are being considered for the National Museum of the American People. One is modeled after the one used by the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the other is used by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Both are thriving story-telling museums in our nation's capital. We propose that the NMAP governance be designed along the lines of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The draft legislation we propose reflects that.
Atop the National Museum of the American People's organization chart will be its Board of Regents. It will be based on the design of the governing body of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Under the Board of Regents would be the National Museum of the American People, the Institute of the American People and a unit to administer both.
Here are a some of the most salient reasons our nation needs the NMAP:
Members of Congress may ask about the impact of the NMAP on regional history, ethnic and minority museums in their state and districts. The legislation being proposed to establish the National Museum of the American People (Chapter 5), includes a provision to work with the Institute of Museum and Library Services to establish a special grant program for local history and ethnic/minority museums.
The NMAP will strive to have a positive impact on the visitorship levels of regional museums, and their fundraising, collections, enhancing the quality of their exhibitions, education programs, and research.
The audience for the NMAP is every American — each one of us! Visitors will flock to the museum to see how their story is told and to learn the stories of all other groups. The museum has the potential to become a national pilgrimage destination. Foreign visitors will also incorporate a visit to better understand our unique nation and learn about those who emigrated here from their own countries.
Annual visitorship to the NMAP, based on visits to all major Washington museums, is expected to be 3-5 million, making it one of the most visited museums in the nation. Additional millions could experience the museum through its educational and curriculum materials, traveling exhibitions and web site.
The National Museum of the American People will have a wide range of stakeholders, both in and out of government: Americans from every ethnic, nationality and minority group in the nation, museum donors, students, educators and scholars; foreign visitors; and residents who live within a few hours commute to the museum.
The NMAP is supported by hundreds of organizations representing scores of ethnic, nationality and minority groups, scholars and a dozen immigration and refugee organizations.
The magnitude of the 20-millennia story of the making of the American People will require significant space and an accessible location near the heart of our nation's capital.
The NMAP will need space for a story-telling museum that will accommodate three million visitors a year or more to its permanent exhibition. It will also require sufficient space for special exhibitions, education and public programs, a scholarly research institute, a library and archive, a restaurant, a bookstore and gift shop, a national ancestry center, as well as space for administration and security.
The central museum structure would be an architecturally world-class building situated on one of two sites: the J. Edgar Hoover Building site on Pennsylvania Avenue, NW and the Banneker Overlook site at the end of L'Enfant Plaza. Final choices on a site will be made by the NMAP’s governing body with approval by designated government agencies and Congress.
Outside of the museum, a park and sculpture garden, with dramatic artwork and water features reflecting themes of the museum, could be incorporated into the project.
Given the size, scope and importance of this institution, the final cost is estimated to be $1.6 billion for an 800,000 square foot building. This number is based on a $2,000 per square foot cost estimate for a national museum provided in 2022 by the Congressional Research Service.
There will be two phases to fundraising for the NMAP. The first will be to fund the planning and construction of the museum, and its initial exhibitions and varied programs. This phase may take 5-6 years from establishment until the museum opens. The second phase will be to build a significant endowment to help fund the museum's ongoing operations upon opening. Congress will be asked to transfer a prime piece of federal land to the National Museum of the American People.
We will seek to have the legislation creating the NMAP allow gifts from foreign governments. As envisioned, a senior US diplomat could be recruited to obtain gifts of $1-20 million, but with a cap so that no single nation could contribute an inordinate amount. We will seek seven-figure and higher gifts from selected individuals, foundations and corporations. There will be a wide variety of naming opportunities for major donors contributing to the National Museum of the American People.
Income from the book store, shops, restaurants, programs and facility rentals would be applied to cover operations.
Overall, we believe that telling the story about the making of the American People will captivate the interest of the American People enabling the NMAP to raise the funds necessary to create this institution.
The National Museum of the American People will provide the nation with priceless value as it:
A draft bill is included in the report (Chapter 5). This bill will create the governing body of the National Museum of the American People, charge it with planning and building the NMAP, and raise the funds to plan, build and begin operating the museum.
The initial goal of the museum's supporters is to establish the museum by an Act of Congress. A public relations effort will be focused on building broad public support and translating that into broad Congressional and White House support. The public relations effort is also aimed at building support by national opinion leaders and stakeholders as well as broad public support.