WASHINGTON (AP) — The complexities of the American story aren’t hard to miss.Just steps into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the gavel used by Nancy Pelosi when she became the first female speaker of the U.S. House sits next to a red “Make America Great Again” cap. A shirt emblazoned with a pink triangle and “Silence = Death” protesting the government’s inaction during the AIDS crisis hangs alongside a campaign shirt for President Ronald Reagan, whose administration was blamed for ignoring the epidemic.The display is part of a broader exhibit flowing throughout the museum dubbed “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness,” commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence. With artifacts ranging from a Revolutionary War-era gunboat to a 1970 Earth Day flag, it’s a reminder that the challenges and divides gripping the U.S. in the age of President Donald Trump, while stark, are not new.
“In some of those contestations, people find the hope and the resiliency to move forward,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s director. “History is filled with those moments where we think we’re completely falling apart as we did in the Civil War and then we’re trying to figure out how to build it back together again.”
