You Really Won’t Believe What Disturbing Items Were on Display at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

Exhibit displays tied to the upcoming 250th anniversary of American independence came under particularly heavy fire.

Within the Entertainment Nation display, investigators found messaging suggesting P.T. Barnum’s circus imagery carried “concerns about maintaining white supremacy.”

Musical instruments received similarly loaded interpretations. Signage reportedly told visitors that “Ukuleles are both a product of U.S. imperialism and a potent symbol of Native Hawaiian resistance.”

Frontier history fared no better in the exhibit’s framing. Displays reportedly claimed that “Wild West shows turned the subjugation of Indigenous people into theater.”

Perhaps most strikingly, even a beloved cartoon mouse became a target of critical framing. The exhibit reportedly linked Mickey Mouse to “vestiges of longstanding traditions of blackface minstrelsy.”

Museum director Anthea Hartig, at the helm since 2019, found her own public statements woven throughout the report as evidence of the alleged shift. Investigators leaned heavily on her past remarks to build their case.

Hartig had described history as a “prime tool of social justice,” according to the report, and characterized part of her job as bridging “research and scholarship to activism and advocacy.”

The report also resurfaced comments in which Hartig suggested the museum field needed to “figure out” how to “problematize” the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary. She had additionally remarked that “loving America is very complicated.”

Investigators pointed to further comments attributed to Hartig, who reportedly argued that museum collections could be used to shift emphasis away from an “Anglo-centric” narrative of the American founding.

Officials did not mince words in their assessment of these statements.

“These are not the words of an objective historian, but rather those of an activist advancing an ideological agenda contradictory to the Museum’s founding purpose of fostering patriotism,” the report declared.

Beyond ideology, the report flagged material investigators deemed wholly unsuitable for young audiences. Magazine covers depicting nude women were reportedly found among items connected to the museum’s holdings.

A device described in the report as a rubber “crotch harness designed for sadomasochism sexual activity” was also cited as inappropriate content within the institution’s collection.

In one of the report’s more startling disclosures, investigators referenced diary pages written by a six-year-old girl, who wrote of fearing “getting boobs” and wishing for a nonexistent “penis to grow.”