Lonnie Bunch III, head of the Smithsonian Institution and a former Oak Parker, is navigating threats to the organization as President Donald Trump works to expand his influence there while attempting to take control of how American history is defined.
Bunch lived in Oak Park early this century when he served as president of the Chicago Historical Society from 2001 to 2005. He left Chicago that year when he was recruited to return to the Smithsonian with the mammoth challenge of inventing and building the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Washington D.C. institution.
In 2019 he became head of the entire Smithsonian, a behemoth of 21 museums plus the National Zoo.
When the African American museum opened to great fanfare 11 years later, Bunch described his feelings as he left Oak Park to drive to Washington in July 2005. “The trip gave me plenty of time to ponder whether I’d made the right decision. After all, I loved Chicago, my home in Oak Park, and my job as president of the Chicago Historical Society. But it was too late to turn back.”
On Friday, a day after Trump signed another executive order, this one directing Vice President J.D. Vance to work with the museum’s board on “issues related to content,” Bunch sent a message to his staff. In the memo he acknowledged the president’s executive order, and said he would work with its Board of Regents but emphasized that the Smithsonian would remain true to its history of scholarly independence.
In a lengthy interview with The New Yorker in 2024, Bunch discussed this potential moment after years of negotiating the increasingly polarized politics of Washington and a growing focus on redefining American history.
“This is one of the most partisan times that we’ve had, definitely in my lifetime. I would argue it’s the most partisan time since the Civil War,” he told the magazine.
Asked if the Smithsonian could move ahead with planning for two new museums, one focused on the history of Latinos in America and the other on women, regardless of who won last November’s presidential election, he said, “The Smithsonian has always been able to rise above the political moment. I don’t see anything that stops that process.”
Bunch was also asked how long he would serve as secretary of the Smithsonian. “Probably as long as I want, unless they throw me out.”
