Press Release
Contact: |
Arnita A. Jones, Executive Director, American Historical Association |
Date: |
April 19, 2006 |
Subject: |
American Historical Association Voices Concern Over Deal Between Smithsonian and Showtime |
For Immediate Release
In a letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence Small, American Historical Association President Linda Kerber expresses the Association’s “alarm and deep dismay” at the recent news reports about the contract between the Smithsonian and Showtime Networks.
In her letter, President Kerber questions the secrecy of the contractual agreement and expresses concern about the apparent restrictions this will place on the public’s access to Smithsonian materials. She goes on to assert that this agreement is a “violation of the trust of generations of Americans who have donated materials to [the Smithsonian] which they believed the public would have free, open, equal and nondiscriminatory access forever.”
The letter calls on the Secretary to disclose the terms of the contract with Showtime, detail the criteria to be used in restricting access to Smithsonian collections and staff, and suspend these terms of the arrangement until these issues have been publicly discussed with all of the stakeholders.
To read the letter in its entirety, please click here.
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest professional historical organization in the United States, bringing together nearly 5,000 institutions and more than 14,000 individuals, including college and university faculty, public historians, independent scholars, archivists, librarians, and secondary school teachers. The Association was organized in 1884 and chartered by the United States Congress in 1889; its establishment coincided with the professionalization of history as a discipline in the United States. Over the years, the Association has changed as the discipline and profession have changed, but its central mission has remained unaltered: the advancement of historical knowledge.
To meet and address the varied needs of its members, the Association publishes the American Historical Review, the major journal of record for the historical profession in the United States, and Perspectives, the major national news monthly of the profession. The Association's annual meeting, which is held during the first week of January, is the largest annual gathering of historians in the United States.
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http://www.historians.org
Last Updated: July 17, 2007
