National Museums and the Curatorial Rewriting of American Commemorative Myths: From the Centennial to the Semiquincentennial

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, national museums are once again at the centre of a contested politics of memory. Drawing on Bennett (1995), Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, and Lonetree, this argues that federally operated institutions from the Smithsonian to National Park Service historic sites – function as ‘exhibitionary complexes’: apparatuses that simultaneously celebrate and discipline national identity. Tracing four commemorative moments – the Centennial (1876), Sesquicentennial (1926), Bicentennial (1976), and Semiquincentennial (2026) – demonstrates how curatorial practice has shifted from triumphalist mythology toward a contested, multiply-authored public history. Case studies of NMAAHC (National Museum of African American History and Culture) and NMAI (National Museum of the American Indian) illustrate how community-based and decolonial curation has disrupted the founding mythology of Anglo-Protestant nationhood. Yet these gains remain structurally precarious. The 2025 executive order directing the Smithsonian to restore narratives of ‘American exceptionalism’ reveals that curatorial rewriting is always subject to the pressures of political culture. National Museums now oscillate between offering comepting narratives exposing the tensions between founding ideals and historical realities - while public debate over ‘revisionism’ confirms that myths of nationhood remain deeply contested. It concludes that contemporary museums operate within foundational myths thickening the narrative to include what Lepore (2019) calls ‘the long story of the United States’ yet never fully escaping the gravitational pull of patriotic celebration.