Culture of, by, and for the People: Curating National Identity at the Smithsonian Museum(s)

National museums often curate national identity by presenting national folk traditions through material culture artifacts such as ceramics, costume[s], textiles, and other handmade objects such as folk art that reflect the traditions of the nation’s people. In the United States, this attempt to create a national narrative has historically been complicated by the nation’s early status as a colonial entity and its by its cultural diversity, including groups that have been historically ostracized by the greater community. This project attempts to explain how American Romanticism shaped the initial understanding of the folk concept in the United States and the concept’s impact on how our national museum, the Smithsonian, preserves and presents cultural heritage through exhibition, as well as explores what folk and cultural heritage displays in a national museum can provide to those who exist outside of the communities presented, and how national cohesion is built and promoted in a culturally diverse nation.