By John Dichtl, AASLH President and CEO
TIME Magazine’s Olivia Waxman recently published an article discussing the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the nation’s small history museums, including comments from AASLH President and CEO John Dichtl. In the post below, Dichtl offers additional thoughts about the challenges history organizations are confronting and what’s at stake if we lose them.
Across the country, monuments are coming down. Protests of police brutality and systemic racism have rapidly transformed the nation’s commemorative landscape and led to a public reckoning with the past. As the country approaches its 250th anniversary, recent events have made clear that historical organizations like museums and historic sites must play a central role in helping the nation confront its history and do the difficult work of addressing racial injustice.
Despite Americans’ urgent need to forthrightly engage with the past, however, many history institutions are on the brink of collapse. Struggling to reopen after months of closure, historical organizations find themselves confronting mounting financial challenges and an increasingly uncertain future.
If they do not receive help soon, the ability of our communities and our country to preserve, interpret, and share its history will be forever diminished.
Coronavirus closures and the accompanying financial collapse have placed history institutions under dire financial strain. Most of the country’s roughly 25,000 history organizations are small, with more than half operating with annual budgets of less than $250,000 a year—and about a quarter on less than $50,000 per year—many with an all-volunteer staff. Most organizations are private nonprofits that receive no government funds. Even many public agencies—such as the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with its seven museums and twenty-seven historic sites, thirty-nine state parks, state library, and state archives—are not fully funded by government appropriation and have to generate for themselves a substantial portion of their operating revenue. Stay at home orders and other restrictions around the country have forced historical societies, museums, and others to miss out on ticket sales, memberships, donations, rentals, sponsorships, and other traditional sources of revenue, causing a budgetary catastrophe at many institutions.
As a result, thousands of employees have been laid off or furloughed over the last four months. Just last month, the Minnesota Historical Society—with headquarters near the epicenter of the current wave of unrest—was forced to lay off nearly a third of its staff. As many as 90 percent of museums worldwide closed during the height of the pandemic and only a few are now beginning the process of reopening. The International Council of Museums has predicted 1 in 8 museums currently closed may never reopen. Earlier this spring, the American Alliance of Museums predicted it could be as many as 1 in 3.
Moving forward, the financial picture for historical organizations is likely to become even more grim. Public investment in cultural institutions and the humanities may decline farther than it already has in recent years as cities, counties, and states impose new spending cuts. At the federal level, the CARES Act and other bills allocated nowhere near the $3 billion in relief funds for which the museum sector advocated. The modest funding they did provide—primarily through $75 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities and $50 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services—still came under intense public scrutiny, despite the museum sector’s critical role as an economic engine.
At a moment of intense engagement with history, too many institutions have been diverted from their missions as they struggle to survive. Without substantial assistance, many museums, historical societies, preservation organizations, and other institutions will likely close forever.
Communities across the country will be left without anchor institutions that provide context for contemporary challenges and help build a collective sense of historical understanding.
The American Alliance of Museums is currently advocating for $6 billion in dedicated funding for museums to provide general operating support and other critical relief. The National Humanities Alliance and Federation for State Humanities Councils has called for an additional $500 million in support for NEH to help cultural institutions survive the pandemic. The nation’s historical organizations need help from members of the public to advocate for the importance of their local history institutions and to do what they can to support them.
The fate of historical organizations may seem trivial as the human and financial toll of the virus continues to mount, but right now history is essential. Historical organizations across the country are well-suited to serve public audiences in profound ways in our current moment, even as they address their own role in maintaining systems of privilege. As we near the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, history institutions can help Americans come to a more critical, more inclusive, and more widely shared understanding of our history.
The past belongs to everyone. We must act now to ensure that history has a future.
As always, John, right on the money. I am forwarding on to my Senators Warren & Markey, my Congresswoman Trahan and my good friend and Congressman Jim McGovern.
Many thanks for your vision,
Chuck
One of my favorite museums has closed as a result of the pandemic: World of Speed Museum in Wilsonville, OR: WorldofSpeed.org.
From their homepage:
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It is with heavy hearts we announce the permanent closure of World of Speed Motorsport Museum. The museum has been temporarily closed to the public since March 16, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Oregon Health Authority’s current guidelines, the museum would fall into Phase Two or Phase Three of the state’s reopening plan, potentially pushing reopening into 2021.
Many of our guests, volunteers, students and docents fall into the category of most vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, which means efforts to keep everyone safe could push reopening further, even after OHA restrictions are lifted. After much deliberation, our board determined it would be unable to maintain the facility during such an extended closure.
World of Speed’s assets and funds will be distributed to 501(c)(3) museums and schools throughout the next three to eight months, as required by Oregon law. This will allow the museum’s collection of historic race cars, boats and motorcycles to live on for future generations to enjoy.
World of Speed Motorsport Museum had an incredible five-year run in Wilsonville. It served as a place for enthusiasts from all ages and all walks of life to come together and share their mutual love of all things motorsport. Opened by Dave and Sally Bany in 2015, World of Speed featured world-class exhibits that told the story of America’s motorsports culture. Over the years, the museum hosted several motorsport legends, including Mario Andretti, Janet Guthrie and Herm Petersen.
Perhaps the museum’s greatest accomplishment was the opportunity it provided high school students to learn the skills needed to work in the automotive industry. What a thrill it was to see these students grow and move onto fulfilling careers after graduation.
We are forever grateful to our dedicated employees, volunteers, donors, members and visitors who helped make World of Speed such a success during the past five years. It was an incredible run.
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Pity to see it go. However there’s good news regarding the Evergreen Aviation Museum in nearby McMinnville. It seems the museum which houses the Hughes Spruce Goose has secured a new owner.
Please include a visit to the historic Folsom Powerhouse Museum just east of Sacramento, CA on your list of post pandemic activities. Perhaps you’ll swing by when I’m on duty. I’d like that.
Stay safe.
Lee Snorteland
Volunteer Tour Guide
Folsom Powerhouse
Our country and the world is going to have to adjust to new economic formulas in the future, not just because of the pandemic, but also because of climate change. Historians and historical records organizations need to consider new ways of adjusting as well. Historians may need to be organized differently. We need to answer the questions: “How can we document and save history as we have climates crises?”, and “How are we saving our history for if we are not here in the future?” After all, no other species on our earth currently cares about our history, just us. It might seem weird as historians, but we may have a lot of thinking to do about being more present than future.