Photo essay: When history was removed, visitors wrote it back

One year and one day ago, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” directing the Department of the Interior to conduct a review of historic monuments, memorials, and similar properties for “partisan ideology” in the country’s national parks and institutions like the Smithsonian museums.

Over last summer a federal campaign reviewed interpretive materials at sites that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” and flagged displays in Independence Hall, the Benjamin Franklin Museum, and the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park.

On Jan. 22, National Park Service workers began removing the exhibits at the President’s House that documented the nine people enslaved by George and Martha Washington, in effect censoring 400 years of history.

Regular people immediately began posting their own signs, reclaiming the space. The spontaneous outpouring filled the empty walls, forming a chorus of ordinary voices insisting that the full story of the site —however uncomfortable to some — remains part of our nation’s history.

Even after most of the panels were returned by a judge’s order in mid-February, visitors continued to leave their marks, each one an act of defiance and remembrance.

Acknowledging citizens’ First Amendment freedom of expression, Park Service workers have allowed the signs to remain — so long as they didn’t damage the walls — and new notes quickly replace those removed by weather and cleanings.