[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

(FWD) NCC Washington Update, Vol. 7, #28, July 5, 2001



NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 7, #28, July 5, 2001
by Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> of  the National Coordinating Committee
for the Promotion of History
*****************

1.   Panel Appointed to Scrutinize Smithsonian Museum of American History
Plans
2.   Senate Committee Seeks to Halt Smithsonian Closing Proposals; More
Professional Organizations Register Concerns Over Proposed Shut Downs
3.   House Passes Adams Memorial Authorization
4.   National Security Archives Releases FOIA at 35 Report
5.   News Bits and Bytes: Colonial Williamsburg History Awareness Survey
Results; New Secretary of the Senate; Adams Digitization Project

1.   PANEL APPOINTED TO SCRUTINIZE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
PLANS
The Smithsonian Institution has appointed a special blue-ribbon commission of
historians and other scholars to advise on strategic exhibition planning at
the National Museum of American History. Appointed by the Smithsonian Board
of Regents, the special 26-member commission will report early next year.

The commission is charged to assist the museum director and his staff in
planning exhibitions for the museum and will offer recommendations on the
most timely and relevant themes and methods of presentation for the museum in
the 21st century.  At present, the museum does not have an up to date
strategic plan.  Specifically charged to correct this situation, the group
will examine the content and presentation formats of exhibits in the museum,
identify new themes not yet incorporated in exhibitions, examine the ways in
which the museum reflects the nation's past and present, assess the museum's
role as a national as well as a local institution, assess the strengths of
the 3-million object collection and the museum experience as a whole, and
examine the museum's role in educating young people. According to a
Smithsonian spokesperson, the panel might review the controversial Reynolds
gift and exhibition agreement. The first meeting of the panel took place on
June 29, 2001, and was designed to acquaint members of the panel with the
museum and its educational mission.

The commission is chaired by Richard Darman, Director of the Office or Budget
and Management during the first Bush Administration. Members of the
commission include NBC television news anchor Tom Brokaw and the History
Channel's Roger Mudd.  There are many historians and scholars on the panel
including historian Stephen Ambrose, Harvard University Lincoln biographer
David Donald, Columbia University history professor Eric Foner, professor at
the University of California at San Diego Ramon Gutierrez, University of
Chicago history professor Neil Harris, Director Emeritus of the Oregon
Historical Society Chet Orloff, Gerald Ford Foundation Executive Director
Richard Norton Smith, Harvard University's Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, University
of Virginia professor and author Edward G. White, former Archivist of the
U.S. and former George Bush Presidential Library Director Don Wilson. Sheila
Burke, Under Secretary for American Museums and National Programs, and
Spencer Crew, Director of the National Museum of American History, will both
sit as ex officio
members.

2.   SENATE COMMITTEE SEEKS TO HALT SMITHSONIAN CLOSING PROPOSALS; MORE
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS REGISTER CONCERNS OVER PROPOSED SHUT DOWNS
On June 30, 2001, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to keep the
Center for Materials Research and Education open pending a review by a
Science advisory panel. Assuming the measure passes the full Senate,
Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small's plans to shut down the facility that
analyzes and researches conservation art would be halted - at least
temporarily.  The language in the Senate Interior Appropriations bill
mandates that a Science Advisory Commission must address the closing proposal
before any action can be taken by the Smithsonian.  Furthermore, the
Smithsonian must also seek the "concurrence" of relevant Senate and House
committees before any final decisions are made.

The effort to keep the facility open was spearheaded by Maryland Senators
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD).  Lambertus van Zelst,
Director of the Center stated that he was grateful to the Senate committee
for the vote: "We very much appreciate the recognition of the importance of
this laboratory for the preservation and study of museum collections
nationally." Asked about the committee's action, Smithsonian spokeswoman
Linda St. Thomas said, "We don't comment on the appropriation until its
final."

In related developments, the Council of the American Historical Association
(AHA) and the American Anthropological Association (AAA) have both issued
statements expressing their respective organizations' views on recent events
at the Smithsonian.  The AHA statement reaffirms the History Exhibit
Standards, suggests the need for revisions to the agreement with the
Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, and calls for the preparation of a
comprehensive plan for future presentation of American history at the
Institution. The AAA letter to Secretary Small expresses the Association's
"strong opposition" to the plan to eliminate the Center for Materials
Research and Education and "grave misgivings" about plans to reorganize the
Smithsonian.

The AHA letter may be viewed in its entirety at <http://www.theaha.org> and
the AAA letter is posted at <http://www.aaanet.org>.

3.  HOUSE PASSES ADAMS MEMORIAL AUTHORIZATION
On June 25, 2001, the House of Representatives passed legislation (H.R. 1668)
introduced by Rep. Tim Roemer (D-IN) to authorize the Adams Memorial
Foundation to raise private funds and establish a commemorative work on
federal land in the District of Columbia and its environs to honor former
President John Adams and his family of distinguished Americans. During
Congressional hearings conducted June 12 by the House Resources Subcommittee
on National Parks and Public Lands, two prominent Adam's scholars -
historians David McCullough and Joseph Ellis - testified in favor of the
legislation and provided enlightening and detailed testimony on the
accomplishments of former President John Adams and his family.

As with the World War II memorial, a controversy has arisen over the
placement of the monument.  The bill states that the "establishment of the
commemorative work shall be in accordance with the Commemorative Works Act."
During the hearing, Rep. Roemer suggested that the memorial should be
constructed on the Tidal Basin between the monuments to George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson.  Roemer's suggestion, if enacted in legislative language,
would negate a vote last year by the Fine Arts Commission, the National
Capital Planning Commission, and the National Capital Memorial Commission to
ban new monuments in that area of the Mall.  According to press accounts,
several commission members have said that they are not prepared to make an
exception to the ban for the Adams memorial.

Roemer's suggestion relating to narrowing consideration for the location of
the memorial is not reflected in the legislative language passed by the
House.  As passed by the House, no specific location for the memorial is
identified, but in all likelihood an exact location would be pinpointed
during discussions between various  ommissions, governmental entities and
others after enactment of the legislation. The bill has been forwarded to the
Senate for action.

4.  NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVES RELEASES FOIA AT 35 REPORT
On July 4, 2001, George Washington University's National Security Archives
released its first annual "State of Freedom of Information" report 35 years
to the day after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of
Information Act in law. The Archives study found that the use of FOIA
continues to rise with 1,965,919 requests being filed with federal agencies
in fiscal 1999.  Direct costs to the taxpayers for administering the law is
just over $286 million or almost exactly $1 per citizen.

As part of the 35th anniversary report, the Archive also posted on its Web
site, http://www.nsarchive.org, the key documents on the history of the U.S.
Freedom of Information Act, including President Johnson's half-hearted
signing statement, excerpts from the Congressional Record debates of 1966,
President Ford's veto statement on the FOIA amendments of 1974 and the
ensuing Congressional debates, President Clinton's signing statement on the
1996 "E-FOIA" amendments, and the most recent General Accounting Office
assessment of the FOIA and E-FOIA. Also included on the site are a User's
Guide to FOIA, sample FOIA request and appeal letters, the addresses of every
major federal agency FOIA contact, and guidance from the Archive experts on
how to use the FOIA. The documents are available at the following URL:
<http://www.nsarchive.org/NSAEBB/NSAEBB51>.

5.  BITS AND BYTES:
Item #1 - Colonial Williamsburg Survey: Yet another report documenting the
sorry state of history awareness by America's teens has been released.
According to a survey commissioned by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 22%
of American teen-agers did not know that the United States declared
independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War - some 14%
believed France was the enemy. The study also found that 17% did not know
there were 13 colonies and 15% did not know that the Declaration of
Independence was adopted July 4, 1776, by the Continental Congress.  The
report was based on interviews with 1,000 teen-agers from across the country
who were asked to answer 10 questions from a 4th grade level history exam. To
tap into the CW press release that summarizes the study, and to take the test
and compare your results with the teen test results, tap into:
<http://history.org/Foundation/press_release/pr_historysurvey2001.html>.

Item #2 - New Secretary of the Senate: Jeri Thomson, formerly Executive
Assistant to the Senate Sergeant at Arms has been appointed to the office of
Secretary of the Senate by Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-SD). Thomson,
53, will supervise the offices and services that expedite the day-to-day
administrative, financial, and legislative operations of the Senate. Ms.
Thomson possesses a BA from the University of Washington. She
replaces Gary Sisco who had served as Secretary from October 1996.

Item #3 - Adams Digitization Project: The Massachusetts Historical Society
(MHS) has received a grant from a private charitable trust to begin
digitizing a selection of John and Abigail Adams manuscripts from the
society's collections.  The two-year project will result in the digitization
of the letters exchanged between John and Abigail Adams, as well as John
Adams's diary and autobiography which is comprised of 51 small volumes of
diaries and 450 pages of manuscript autobiography.  The materials will be
available on the MHS website:
<http://www.masshist.org>.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  * * * *
NCC invites you to redistribute the NCC Washington Updates.  A complete
backfile of these reports is maintained by H-Net at
<http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~ncc>.  To subscribe to the "NCC Washington
Update," send an e-mail message to listserv@h-net.msu.edu according to the
following model: SUBSCRIBE H-NCC firstname lastname, institution.

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>