ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Museums have a rich heritage as part of American society. They are the places where our national treasures are held and displayed, they help to tell the stories of the United States and its peoples for all who visit, and they help to preserve artifacts from its past. Until recent decades, the stories being told in most museums were often those of the dominant groups in society, and were nationalistic in tone. Museums often favored
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Or, if other groups’ artifacts were included, they were often viewed as archaeological, ethnographic, or exotic, and not part of the shared culture of the United States. This lack of representation for marginalized groups has changed in many museums over the past several decades, and in many ways parallels the multicultural movement in education. Whole museums are now dedicated to the history of African Americans (e.g. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History), southern and eastern European immigrants (e.g. New York City Tenement Museum; Ellis Island), and American Indians (e.g. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian).
