CAA News Today

CAA has signed on to the American Historical Association (AHA) statement defending the Smithsonian Institution after the release of a recent executive order and accompanying fact sheet claiming Smithsonian museums are displaying “…improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology.” This is a gross mischaracterization of the role and impact of the Smithsonian.   

“Patriotic history celebrates our nation’s many great achievements. It also helps us grapple with the less grand and more painful parts of our history. Both are part of a shared past that is fundamentally American. We learn from the past to inform how we can best shape our future. By providing a history with the integrity necessary to enable all Americans to be all they can possibly be, the Smithsonian is fulfilling its duty to all of us.”  

Read the full statement in defense of the institution here.

OTHER LEARNED SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS WHO HAVE SIGNED ON TO THE AHA STATEMENT

American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education 
American Association of Geographers 
American Society for Environmental History 
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 
Association for the Study of African American Life and History 
Association of Research Libraries 
Civil Rights Movement Archive 
Conference on Asian History 
Education4All 
Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library 
Labor and Working Class History Association 
LGBTQ+ History Association 
Midwestern History Association 
National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education 
National Council on Public History 
Network of Concerned Historians 
North American Victorian Studies Association 
Oral History Association 
PEN America 
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 
Society for the History of Children and Youth 
Society for US Intellectual History 
Southern Association for Women Historians 
Woodhull Freedom Foundation