A good collection of clippings for tracing this controversy is the volume "Enola Gay Coverage, 1995,'' available from the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, Readers who wish to comment on this round table or to read other comments may link with H?TP:// Harwit, Martin Sherwin, Paul Schadewald, and Scott Stephan and from criticism of earlier drafts by SusanĪrmeny, Nick Cullather, Richard Kohn, and Alfred F. Tions with Michael Frisch, Arnita Jones, John Dichtl, Tom Crouch, Richard Kohn, Edward Linenthal, Martin In writing this introduction, however, I benefited enormously from conversa. I have talked about this controversy with so many people over the past year that I cannot recall all the individuals
Enola gay smithsonian controevrsy professional#
professional procedures and criteria." The American Legion broke off negotiations and called for cancellation of the exhibit in January 1995. Historians, led by the Organization of American Historians (OAH) in October, formally condemned "revisions of interpre- tations of history for reasons outside. Curators negotiated content with veterans' groups. The United States Senate unanimously proclaimed the script "revisionist and offensive to many World War I1 veterans" in September.
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The Air Force Association (AFA) launched a campaign against that script in March. The debate that led up to and followed Heyman's decision was much more than a controversy between veterans and scholars or another battle in "the culture wars." The story is familiar: NASM curators completed an exhibition script in January 1994. we did not give enough thought to the intense feelings. that the nation would honor and commemorate their valor and sacrifice. Veterans and their families were expecting. Michael Heyman of the Smithsonian Institution announced that the world's most popular museum, the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, had-decided to replace an exhibition it had been planning since 1988, "The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War 11," with a smaller display that eschewed controversy and "interpretation." He explained: "We made a basic error in attempting to couple an historical treatment of the use of atomic weapons with the 50th anniversary commemoration of the end of the war. The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II (Proposed exhibition)Īn Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay (Monograph).History after the Enola Gay Controversy: An Introduction The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War (Proposed exhibition) Office of the DirectorĮnola Gay (Exhibition) (1995-1998: Washington, D.C.) Keywords Keywords table of terms and types. Some materials document projects and professional activities undertaken by Harwit after his resignation. In 1996, Harwit published the book "An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay." Materials include correspondence, exhibition floor plans, Congressional hearing statement, articles, clippings, notes, brochures, and related materials. After his resignation, Harwit continued to collect clippings and journal articles related to the "Enola Gay" and its exhibition. On June 28, 1995, "Enola Gay" was presented as a fact-based exhibition with little interpretation and significant emphasis on the aircraft's restoration. On January 30, the exhibition was cancelled and Harwit resigned as Director on May 2, 1995. Each version of the script was met with controversy, particularly from veterans groups. The exhibition was retitled "The Last Act: The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II" and the script underwent several major revisions through January 1995. A script for "The Crossroads: The End of World War II, the Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War" was released for comment in January 1994. This accession consists of records created and maintained by Martin Harwit, Director of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), 1987-1995, documenting plans to exhibit the "Enola Gay" and the resulting controversy.