A Message from the Archivist

National Archives building in Washington D.C.

As the Archivist of the United States, my top priority is access for all Americans to the important records of our nation that we hold in trust at the National Archives. I am deeply committed to civic education and public engagement, and I have made it a priority to expand the reach of the National Archives to a wider audience. The Wall Street Journal has published an article based on anonymous complaints about that work and my leadership of the agency. 

I strongly disagree with the misinformed perspective presented in the article. 

I cannot state this strongly enough: I am proud of the work we are doing at the National Archives, and I am unwavering in my commitment to leading NARA without partisanship or ideology. 

Our mission is too important, and the stakes are too high, for anything less. 

As federal employees, we are not here to promote or share our personal interpretation of the records. That is for others to do. We are here to preserve, protect, and share the records with all Americans. 

Our exhibits and educational programs must be aligned with that mission.  

That does not mean we shy away from difficult topics; but it does mean that we need to be thoughtful in how we engage with our past and focused on fostering understanding and dialogue. 

Over the last 18 months, I have been very direct with NARA employees and stakeholders about the challenges we face as an agency, and the importance of ensuring all Americans feel welcomed to our spaces and find their experiences represented in our programming and exhibits. That direction is clearly articulated in our new Strategic Framework, as well. 

We made that position clear in our statement to the Journal, which I am sharing in full here:


The National Archives is the nation’s record keeper. We are an independent government agency responsible for preserving, protecting, and sharing the records of the United States without partisanship or ideology. To be successful, it is imperative that the National Archives welcomes—and feels welcoming to—all Americans. 

We are not activists for anything but the records themselves. Dr. Shogan is strongly committed to upholding that value for the National Archives. In her first year and a half in office, she has prioritized building a bipartisan coalition in Congress to support the agency’s digital transformation and increase outreach and engagement. These priorities are underscored in her newly released Strategic Framework

The Archivist is working to ensure the agency tells a more complete story of American history. It is why we have announced the forthcoming additions of the Emancipation Proclamation and 19th Amendment to the Rotunda that holds the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. She also continues to prioritize digitization for previously underserved communities, so that all Americans may have better access to the records chronicling their heritage.

The National Archives is committed to opening our doors and our records to everyone, without ideology or partisanship. That standard must be upheld in all of NARA’s work, including our exhibits. Some may not agree with these standards, but Dr. Shogan is steadfast in her vocal promise to lead the agency with these guiding principles. As she has said, leading a nonpartisan agency during an era of political polarization is not for the faint of heart.

As we look ahead to the nation’s semiquincentennial, the National Archives, under Dr. Shogan’s leadership, is focused on our digital future, expanding access, and creating world-class experiences that resonate with all Americans.

Thank you to everyone who is working so hard to support NARA’s success. I appreciate your great work, and I know change is not easy.


DR. COLLEEN J. SHOGAN

Archivist of the United States


Follow Dr. Shogan on her official platform accounts:

39 thoughts on “A Message from the Archivist

  1. Thanks for engaging with the difficult topics of Elvis taking a photo with Nixon. Groundbreaking. Definitely more important than birth control, the Civil Rights movement, and the history of indigenous people.

  2. This article still does not provide clarity for the items specifically addressed in the WSJ. Stating your commitment to archiving and preserving America’s history does not refute the specific claims of the WSJ. As you are one of the nation’s top archivist, it’s disheartening to hear you so obviously mislead or underrepresent your true intentions. Through your role, you do not owe allegiance to a political stance or party, your allegance belongs to preserving the truth. No matter how humiliating or negative you interpret it to be. You are a disgrace to all who have chosen to preserve information and history. Resign and allow someone who has the moral integrity to do the job.

  3. None of this directly refutes any of the claims made in the article, leading me to believe that this organization continues to be under the control of feckless cowards. Would love to be proven wrong on that.

  4. Nixon meeting Elvis is more critical than Dr. Martin Luther King?

    The call for social unity should reflect every American’s history. If guests of the Archives cannot see themselves in a man who represents peace and camaraderie, then they should be uncomfortable. That is nothing to do with activism and everything to do with the responsibility we have to uphold our countries commitment to collectivism.

    You have failed the American people by neglecting the POC who have built this country with their backs, their words, their actions, and their lives.

  5. Your post does not address the issues raised by the Wall Street Journal article: did you remove the photos of the Japanese-American incarceration camps? Have you eliminated or downplayed the existence and treatment of Native American tribes in our country’s history? Did you remove the image of Martin Luther King Jr. from the “Step into History” photo booth, as well as those of Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf? Are people who use the booth assigned a random figure, or can they choose? If the latter, then what’s the reason for those removals, if not to erase non-white, non-male people from our historical record? I’m a baseball fan myself, but Cal Ripkin > Dolores Huerta? Not bloody likely, in the context of US history. And the decision to include the patent for the bump stock – which audience are you catering to there?

  6. So you can’t rebut anything substantive that they reported. Don’t make excuses, do better. Or quit and spend some time reading Timothy Snyder.

    1. This is the most republican answer of all time. To literally just come out and say you’re not doing what everyone LITERALLY sees you doing. This is gaslighting at its finest. It’s sad what humans do once they have power.

    2. Who are the “stakeholders” she said she’s been direct with over the last 18 months? If this is a government agency, and is for the public, who else has such a vested interest?

  7. I hope you’re immediately terminated and the archives are restored to show the truth. This is the kindest thing I can say.

  8. “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim, silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere” – Elie Wiesel

    You’re a coward, Colleen.

    And you know it.

  9. Then if what the WSJ asserts is not the case, then simply come out and state for the record that you are NOT de-emphasizing the history of MLK, Japanese Internment, and the mis-treatment of our indigenous peoples. Very easy. Sometimes the truth IS unpalatable. So be it.
    If this is an example of anticipatory obedience to a change in the government, then you will in effect be complicit in silencing of history.
    If Dr Shogun and the administrators who support this move can’t maintain their non-partisan integrity, then they should as a matter of pricipal – resign. And let other who can take the reigns.

  10. Rev. Bishop Theron Holmes-Clarke
    IFFA [Interfaith Foundation for Awareness]

    In brief, National Archivist PhD Shogun, have exhibits, displays or presentations been changed? While former President Nixon’s greeting an icon of “some Americans”, may perhaps be important we and our members would not put such a meeting above a Nobel Laurette or the inspirational head and figure that championed vast changes in American Civil and Human Rights.
    Other notations in the ‘Journal’ article may fall into a category of broader visions of inclusion but at the cost of pertinent information and candor, then they become pandering illusion not actualities of life.

    1. Man, did he let you off easy, Dr Colleen…let’s hope you resign before you’re fired, so you can put a photo of Elvis and Nixon on your resumé.

  11. You don’t disagree with the facts contained in the article, only with the “misinformed perspective” it contains (you need a better editor). Apparently, “all Americans” does not include African Americans and Native Americans, whose stories may make MAGA uncomfortable. I still don’t think it will save your job if Trump wins.

  12. You are a coward. You have bent to the will of a fascist who isn’t even in power yet. You have done his bidding to save yourself. You are a disgrace to this country. You are complicit in the rise of American fascism. You are a coward.

  13. In the events reported by the Wall Street Journal, you’re not preserving America’s history, Dr. Shogan; you’re curating lies. Ignoring the histories of diverse people doesn’t make them disappear—it only reveals the limits of the National Archives’ commitment to truth. This isn’t preservation; it’s erasure weaponized as academia.

  14. The fact that you sat there and wrote this stupid blog to try to defend your racist, and I will say racist attempt of whitewashing history is prevalent through the eyes of everybody who commented on this post. You can try to sugarcoat anywhere you want to, but you’re trying to appease a Republican party who has sworn themselves to be hateful and violent individuals. And now you’re cooperating with them I hope you’re very proud of yourself because now the backlash you’re gonna receive will eventually and I hope will eventually allow you to be removed from the position that you currently hold at the national archives.

  15. “If Ruby Bridges could survive one of our ugliest chapters, today’s kids can learn about it.” Ed Pratt

    Grow a spine, Doctor Shogan.

  16. How sad for our country that the truth is at risk even in a place that is supposed to uphold truth. If you are not up to the task resign now.

  17. So a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. was replaced by a picture of Richard Nixon meeting Elvis Presley? Pictures of the camps where we interred Japanese-ancestry US citizens were taken down, references to the coal industry causing environmental hazards were removed, removal of labor-union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth, according to current and former employees and agency documents.” You even removed a picture of Republican President Jerry Ford’s wife Betty because she was wearing an Equal Rights Amendment button, and in the display of “patents that changed the world” the birth control pill was replaced with the bump stock that turns semi-automatic weapons into functionally fully-automatic machine guns. Politely said, you have no business being in charge of our National Archives and are a shame to this Nation. If you can’t do the job just resign.

  18. Unless the specifics in the article are addressed, the your post is simply ducking accountability. Touting the display of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 19th Amendment documents as examples that the Archives are now telling a complete history is absurd. Hardly bravely confronting racism and misogyny! Visitors relate to stories, identify with the human element, not with documents, so to remove the stories of marginalized Americans is erasing history.

  19. I am an historical researcher and have conducted research at numerous NARA facilities for the past 30 some years. WSJ does not have a clue about how NARA operates. NARA, by definition, is the most apolitical institution in the US government. Its staff does not hide records that are open to the public, and they do not direct researchers away from or towards any records to fulfill a political agenda. NARA’s only agenda is to protect and preserve ALL federal records. That means that when a former federal official retains records that belong to the people of the United States, NARA is legally and dutifully bound to seize those records, even if those records are in the hands of a former President.

  20. This is an embarrassing non response to the facts raised in the article. In a week when many of us are steeling ourselves to fight to the last against fascism 2.0, you’ve knelt down to kiss the boot in a vain attempt to save your skin

    It won’t work. They will try to erase our history in a moments notice, you’ve just made it easier. You’ve brought shame to your office

  21. Colleen, enjoy your early retirement. You caved to the Nazis, and now you will surely reap what you have sowed.

    It’s pretty mind-boggling that you, appointed by President Biden, would cave to the likes of Senator Hawley, who raised his effing fist to the 1/6 terrorists before cowering and soiling himself in the Senate bathroom.

    You, ma’am have made a grave error and violated the sanctity and truth of our national history. SHAME ON YOU! Enjoy your new job driving Trump around airports in a garbage truck.

    Pathetic, and history will judge you harshly. I await your reply…haha, because you have zero decency or courage and won’t, will you?

    Yeah, I thought so. Go work for Elon.

  22. I apologize. In my disgust at what you have done, I didn’t read your pathetic response. Not remotely good enough, Dr. Colleen. As one of your 380 million employers, I urge you to quietly resign and get your dream job at Fox News.

  23. NARA does so many things extraordinarily well. I’ve researched in paper and digital records, benefitted from archivists’ guidance, and celebrated NARA’s open access to others. The Strategic Framework document linked in NARA’s response does not help me to understand exhibit planning in light of the investigative reporters’ contentions, based on anonymous sources or not. I hope our nation’s Archivist, Dr. Colleen Shogan, publishes a more specific response because this reporting seems to echo NMAH’s 1987 Enola Gay controversy.

  24. Dr. Shogun is not an archivist. She is unqualified to lead NARA and never should have been appointed. Censoring history to appease the right-wing is inappropriate and not as “bipartisan” as she would like to think. The National Archives must represent ALL of American history, good and bad. The institution is moving backwards, and its reputation will suffer with her changes to these exhibits.

  25. “To be successful, it is imperative that the National Archives welcomes—and feels welcoming to—all Americans.” That’s great, but it’s not what you’re doing with your exhibit changes. You’re trying to make SOME Americans feel welcomed: Americans who (apparently) are afraid to confront the “unwelcoming” parts of actual US history. You’re cutting away parts of history those Americans can’t handle. The rest of us Americans prefer to learn and confront ALL parts of US history—even the icky “unwelcoming” parts—to acknowledge and learn from our nation’s struggles and mistakes. Removing those parts of history makes the National Archives feel unwelcoming and shameful to us.

    If you’re not actually making the changes described by the WSJ, then please state that clearly. Tell us what specifically the WSJ got wrong in their report. Don’t post vague statements like the one I’m responding to.

    If the WSJ is not wrong about your exhibit changes, then you’re no different from the people ignorantly pushing for book bans and redacting history textbooks because they’re afraid of American kids learning true US history—ALL the history. Shame on you.

  26. You are despicable and disgusting and your actions are reprehensible and unacceptable. We have whitewashed our history way too much and still it’s not enough for you. POC matter. What we have done and continue to do to them matters. I hope the outrage elevates, Kamala Harris wins, and that you are replaced. The truth matters. Is that why you’re erasing it? If you don’t have the integrity to accept the truth and reality and to have that represented in the National Archives Museum then you have no place being there. Resign.

  27. I too am shocked and dismayed by your decisions as detailed in the WSJ. You say you want to welcome all Americans and make them feel welcome. So you whitewash American history by deleting history displays important to African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Native Americans. This non-reply to the specific accusations in the WSJ article just makes me angrier. White supremacy should not be welcomed or be made to feel welcome in any government institution that my tax dollars pay for.

  28. Does the WSJ article tell the full story? Perhaps. Even if not, the fact that current and former staff have complained about censorship does not bode well for Dr. Shogan’s handling of this. And the bumbling and defensive response offered here is eye opening, and shows a leader who does not have the judgement or full understanding of how to deal with the big problems. Is this just a momentary glitch, or, the big reveal of what’s really going on behind the curtain??

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