The Washington Post published an article this week reporting that leadership within the National Park Service (NPS) is ordering material referencing slavery at some NPS sites taken down. One of the sites impacted is the important site of Harpers Ferry. Here are substantial excerpts from the article:
“The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks, according to four people familiar with the matter, including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.
“Interpretive materials that disproportionately emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress, can unintentionally distort understanding rather than enrich it,” Pawlitz said.
At Harpers Ferry, staff flagged more than 30 signs, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Post, that highlight information potentially in violation of Trump’s policy. They include signs referring to racial discrimination and the hostility of White people to people who were formerly enslaved.
The photo was circulated widely at the time, and Northern audiences were shocked at what the photo showed, said Anne Cross, a scholar of 19th century photography at Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
The photo has since become famous, taking on a greater meaning in the struggle for Black liberation, Cross said. The New Yorker integrated the image into a collage on its cover commemorating George Floyd, a month after his death at the hands of police. Later that year, Viola Davis appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair showing her back, with photographer Dario Calmese acknowledging that he sought to replicate the historic photo.
In his executive order, Trump singled out the “corrosive ideology” at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, where the founders signed the Declaration of Independence.
That park includes the President’s House Site, where George Washington served as president before the capital moved to Washington, D.C. The house was demolished in the 1800s, but an exhibit opened there in 2010 based on archaeological excavations.
Park Service officials marked the submission as “out of compliance,” with staff now expected to cover up parts of signs or remove them, the person said.
Separately, Park Service officials have ordered the removal of a photograph illustrating violence against slaves, known as “The Scourged Back,” at one national park. The photograph, taken in 1863, shows scars on the back of a man probably named Peter Gordon from wounds inflicted by his masters before he escaped slavery.
Local advocates had pushed for the exhibit to provide in-depth information on the lives of nine people who were enslaved by George Washington while he lived in the house as president. The exhibit includes their names carved into a granite wall.
“This is not just a handful of signs that tell the story of slavery,” said Ed Stierli, senior Mid-Atlantic regional director at the advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association. “This is a place that tells the complete story not just of slavery in America, but what it was like for those who were enslaved by George Washington.”
Trying to extricate slavery from the President’s House exhibit would fundamentally change the nature of the site, said Cindy MacLeod, who was superintendent of Independence National Historical Park for 15 years until 2023.
“This is just one of many exhibits at Independence National Historical Park,” MacLeod said. “And to me, it’s a vital one.””
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