The National Archives & Records Administration (NARA / Archives) serves as the United States of America’s governmental repository and works towards the preservation of the country’s past and legal documents for each branch of government: the Executive Branch, the Judicial Branch, and the Legislative Branch. It is the duty of this body to be the caretaker of the foundational documents and future ones as well.
Recently, NARA has made a controversial move that has directly impacted many’s perceptions of the institution. In January of 2020, the organization utilized a 2017 Women’s March on Washington Getty image to complement their Women’s Suffrage exhibit, commemorating the centennial of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, within this image, particular words referring to anatomical parts of the body and negative references to the President, have been purposefully blurred.
In the immediate response to this callout, the Archivist of NARA, David Ferriero, supported the comment that their spokeswoman put out stating, that they wanted to avoid the controversy of politics. It was commented on by others that this was a way to make the exhibit family-friendly without explicit language directly on display.
Noting that this image is at the front of the exhibit at the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery on the second floor of the Archives, I was not surprised by this action. During my internship at the Archives, I believe it was the purpose of the Archives to educate the public and to not participate actively in the modern politics.
So, as to avoid this political water that we are currently in in the United States, their action was to simply avoid being an active member in the political discussion. Many of the exhibits that I was able to either be a part of or visit at the Archives specifically focused on educating the public about an event that had already occurred through the lens of the documents themselves, so much so that exhibits relating to naturalization, prohibition, and the simple acts of freedom (permanent exhibit on the first floor) showcased a sense of equality through a very digestible medium, not to cause controversy or to show any sort of slant.
There are many various angles you are able to take when identifying how the Archives should have or have not displayed this image. The simple term to make things family-friendly has been a great mission of the Archives, as they commonly have almost 16 million people through their doors every year, many of whom are families and children on school trips.
It is my opinion that they could have simply chosen another picture to highlight 2017 Women’s March on Washington or placed it in a more private area of the gallery in order to address the sensitivity of the language used. As the area which it is currently on display is in a very public setting, a visitor would be able to view the item without even entering the gallery, passively viewing the image without any sort of warning to that specific language used.
After then entering into the political arena that they were first trying to avoid, NARA issued a mea culpa stating the they should not have altered the image for their exhibition.
We made a mistake.
— US National Archives (@USNatArchives) January 18, 2020
As the National Archives of the United States, we are and have always been completely committed to preserving our archival holdings, without alteration. pic.twitter.com/VTWOS4R7GY
I believe that this was a way to settle the dust which was risen in the first place. By issuing this statement, the Archives is once again trying to stay out of politics and ensure that they uphold the mission to preserve the documentation of the branches of government, rather than act as a political entity in its own right. It is my fear that should the President or Getty issue a comment on this item, defending the use to display it, either censored or uncensored, you will see NARA back in the spotlight, which they tried to avoid in the first place.
