US history museum head says patriotism is at its best when it is 'not instructed but inspired'

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - The director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, which has been under attack from President Donald Trump's White House, said on Tuesday the museum is at its most powerful when patriotism is "not instructed but inspired."

A White House Domestic Policy Council report accused the museum earlier this month of "thinly veiled anti-Americanism" and "extreme political activism."

National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig testified before a House of Representatives oversight subcommittee that Americans visiting the museum get to see a wide range of U.S. history.

"They find the inventions that changed the world and the ordinary Americans who built it. I have watched 10-year-olds with their families stand in front of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' with their hands over their hearts. No one told them to," she said.

"That is the National Museum of American History at its most powerful: patriotism, not instructed, but inspired."

Trump has targeted U.S. cultural and historical institutions in a reshaping that civil rights advocates say could reverse ​decades of social progress and undermine the acknowledgment of critical phases of American history.

His declarations and executive orders have led to the ​dismantling of slavery exhibits, the restoration of Confederate statues, and reviews into the work of museums. Trump says his aim is to remove "anti-American ideology."

Hartig also said the museum aimed to reflect the country's diverse voices by adding stories of communities that had previously been left untold.

"When historians talk about reframing a traditional narrative, we do not mean erasing it. We mean adding the evidence, the voices and the objects that earlier tellings left out, so that more Americans can see themselves in the national story," she added.

Hartig also reiterated sentiments expressed previously by Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch in saying that the White House report released on July 4 did not fairly characterize the museum's work. She added, "There is always room for improvement."

The 180-year-old Smithsonian, a vast museum and research complex and a premier exhibition space for U.S. history and culture, includes 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington)