Big Changes Suggested for Top Museum

WASHINGTON -- The Smithsonian Institution’s board of regents on Tuesday made public the report of a blue-ribbon commission of academics, journalists and museum administrators calling for a top-to-bottom redo of the National Museum of American History.

The report, endorsed Monday, was commissioned by the regents last June to study how best to proceed in light of an $80-million donation from California businessman Kenneth Behring.

In its report, the 23-member commission, chaired by former director of the federal Office of Management and Budget Richard Darman, identified several problems. It cited a lack of coherence (“the museum does not seem to meet any obvious test of comprehensibility”), a bevy of underrepresented subjects and a displeasing appearance, which the commission calls “the attic effect--the problem of clutter, darkness and confinement.”

The commission is recommending several design changes, such as opening the center of the museum to create a vertical core. Other recommendations include an orientation film and more attention to underrepresented topics.

The museum has been dealing with waves of controversy, including the resignation of its director, since Lawrence Small’s arrival 18 months ago as secretary of the Smithsonian--which includes the Museum of American History, 15 other museums and galleries, eight research centers and the National Zoo. Small has sought to increase private donations to the museums but has also angered many of the curators by allowing corporations and individuals to put their names on exhibits and buildings.

The commission was blunt in addressing the concerns of the curators that the museums’ scholarship standards be preserved and the desire of Small and contributors that the museum be made more user-friendly.

“The National Museum of American History must impose a comprehensible sense of intellectual order while avoiding gross simplification or inattention to important schools of historical thought.”