How does a museum and a community grapple with a founder’s history of racist statements and a controversial statue in his honor?
“I was always known as the guy with that really obnoxious statue outside of his museum; I’ve never liked it,” Dr. Thomas said in an interview. “We’re supposed to be building some bridges into indigenous communities, and this is a tough way to do it.”
“But that said, I don’t think that we ought to just blow it up,” he added. “I think it’s a statement in time about where the museum was.”
Conversation about monuments has reached a fever pitch, and the city was split on this one. The American Museum of Natural History is opening an exhibition on it. There's a quote that takes up its own wall at the American Museum of Natural History's newest exhibition: It's more important to tell the truth about the president - pleasant or unpleasant - than about anyone else.
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