The photo of Peter Gordon’s scarred back left such an impression on Americans in the 1800s that it solidified the movement to end slavery in the US for good.
Now, the famous photo, known as ‘The Scourged Back’, taken in 1863, is set to be removed from the National Portrait Gallery.
It’s part of Donald Trump’s crackdown on what he calls ‘corrosive ideology’ in museums and across America.
Multiple individuals involved with national parks told The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity that the removal is because of Trump’s belief that such photos and exhibits ‘disparage’ history.
At Harpers Ferry National Park in West Virginia, where an abolitionist led a raid to arm slaves for revolt, information about that revolt will be removed.
Other targeted exhibits in Trump’s dystopian crackdown include those on racism, sexism, slavery, gay rights and Indigenous history in the United States.
The administration has also asked employees and visitors to report any potential ‘offending’ information.
A spokesperson for the National Park Service said: ‘Interpretive materials that disproportionately emphasise negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress, can unintentionally distort understanding rather than enrich it.’
The Smithsonian is also in Trump’s sights – last month, the President said the museum focuses too much on ‘how bad slavery was’, and spreads ‘anti-American ideology’.
The history of authoritarian governments altering the past
Historically, governments have always wanted to control elements of the past, pump out certain narratives.
But the more authoritarian the government becomes, the more that version of the past becomes central to their governing idea, and the less tolerance they’re able to allow in representing the past.
‘Everybody does it,’ Garner said. ‘But more recently, Hitler did it, Mussolini did it, Stalin did it, and Putin does it. So it doesn’t matter whether Trump now goes ahead and changes exhibits in the Smithsonian or not.
‘What matters is that he’s put out the idea that this should happen, that the Smithsonian is some sort of “woke” institution that needs to be reformed.’
Current and former exhibitions at the museum will undergo a review to make sure they align with Trump’s agenda and view of history, the White House said.
But the dangers of sanitising history to one’s liking have raised alarm bells – and prompted experts to speak out.
Historian and propaganda academic Ian Garner previously told Metro: ‘What Trump is doing looks like a pretty naked attempt at sanitising history in order to maximise his own power.’
If Trump’s attempt to change how the Smithsonian tells the story of America is successful, he could go beyond skewing understanding of the past and present – but also the direction of the future, Garner warned.
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