The National Museum of the American People is a proposed museum to be built in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

  A bipartisan resolution calling for a Presidential Commission to study the creation of this museum was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 7, 2011 by Rep. Jim Moran

Jim Moran

James Patrick "Jim" Moran, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1991. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is located in Northern Virginia and includes the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, all of Arlington County, and a portion of Fairfax County.Jim Moran was...

 (D-VA) with the support of John Duncan

John Duncan, Sr.

John James Duncan, Sr. was an American attorney and Republican politician who represented Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1965 until his death in 1988. He also served as Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1959 to 1964, and as assistant attorney...

 (R-TN).

Overview

Proposed by the Coalition for the National Museum of the American People, composed of more than 140 ethnic, national and genealogical private non-profit organizations, the Museum would "tell the story of every group of that came from the prehistoric period through today." The organization announced this project at a press event in February, 2011 and began gathering support in Congress. In July of 2011, a Bipartisan Resolution, H.Con.Res. 63, was introduced in Congress by Rep. Jim Moran with 13 other original cosponsors representing both Democrats and Republicans.

History

The Coalition for the National Museum of the American People was created by Sam Eskenazi, former Director of Public Information for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...

. According to Eskenazi, the concept for the museum originated when he was passing the Jamie L. Whitten Building, the only office building on the National Mall

National Mall

The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...

. According to Eskenazi:

I asked myself, “If this were a museum, what kind of museum could it be?” The answer: a museum that would tell the stories of all of the peoples coming to this land. I came up with a name for the museum on the spot - the National Museum of the American People. It is a testament to the need for the museum that many people, when told about the proposal, were surprised that such a museum doesn't already exist.

On September 11, 2008, Congressman Maurice Hinchey

Maurice Hinchey

Maurice Dunlea Hinchey , is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party...

 introduced a bill, H.R. 6883, into the 110th United States Congress

110th United States Congress

The One Hundred Tenth United States Congress was the meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, between January 3, 2007, and January 3, 2009, during the last two years of the second term of President George W. Bush. It was composed of the Senate and the House of...

 to "establish a commission to study the establishment of the National Museum of the American People, ....". However, the bill did not leave the United States House Committee on Natural Resources. Eskenazi then created a coalition of private not-for-profit ethnic and nationality groups to support the creation of the museum in 2009 and 2010. In February, 2011 these organizations announced a formal launch of the project at a press event in Washington, D.C. Shortly thereafter the Washington City Paper named it "D.C.'s Best Museum That Doesn't Exist Yet" as part of their "Best Of D.C. 2011" issue.

In May 2011 Congressman Jim Moran agreed to be the originating sponsor of a resolution calling for a study group, expressing concerns about balkanization of the National Mall. In partnership with Eskenazi's Coalition for the National Museum of the American People, Moran introduced into the 112th United States Congress

112th United States Congress

The One Hundred Twelfth United States Congress is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2011, and will end on January...

 on July 7, 2011, H.Con.Res. 63, "supporting the formation of a bipartisan Presidential Commisssion to study the establishment of a National Museum of the American People".

One site proposed for the museum is an overlook at the south end of L'Enfant Promenade

L'Enfant Plaza

L'Enfant Plaza is a complex of one governmental and three commercial buildings, as well as the "La Promenade" shopping mall, in the Southwest section of Washington, D.C. The plaza is located south of Independence Avenue SW between 12th and 9th Streets SW...

 that now contains the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

's Benjamin Banneker Park, a half mile (800 m) south of the Smithsonian Institution's "Castle"

Smithsonian Institution Building

The Smithsonian Castle, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. behind the National Museum of African Art, houses the Smithsonian Institution's administrative offices and information center...

on the National Mall.

Museum contents and exhibitions

The Museum project creators have proposed a number of components to be considered for a final institution. Among these are a permanent exhibition (tentatively called The Story of the American People), a Center for Advanced Studies drawing upon a group of over 50 scholars who have offered their support to the project, a National Genealogical Center, an Education and Resource Center and an archival library of American Migration and Immigration.

In addition the permanent collection is intended to be presented in a narrative manner, told as four chapters :

Chapter I, The First Peoples Come, 20,000 before present (est.)-1607

Chapter II, The Nation Takes Form, 1607-1820

Chapter III, The Great In-Gathering, 1820-1924

Chapter IV, And Still They Come, 1924-Present