Title: The National Museum of American Diplomacy.
Author | Carpenter-Rock, Jane |
Text:
"It seems to me a little short of criminal that the Department does not have a display or museum room. ...the more the American people are permitted to see these tangible symbols of the Department's history and work, the clearer understanding and appreciation they will have of its worldwide responsibilities and tasks and the devoted efforts of the Department's officers and employees to further the interests of our nation." ~J. Burke Wilkinson, State Department Official, 1956 In a 1956 State Department memo, J. Burke Wilkinson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, articulated the Department's need for a "display room or museum for the preservation and exhibition of documents and objects important in the history of the Department of State and the Foreign Service." Again in 1958, a series of internal memos urged the creation of a "Department Museum" and the development of a "related presentation program" to include "eighty additional galleries in the U.S. posts all over the world," an idea supported by then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. For over sixty years, the effort to establish a "Department Museum" has waxed and waned. Intervening issues like war, international crises, changes in administration, and the ever-present need for office space, have often taken priority. However, the long-held vision of establishing a Department museum is finally taking shape in the form of the National Museum of American Diplomacy. With a projected opening date of 2022, this long-awaited museum promises to be a platform where the American people can finally see the "devoted efforts of the Department's officers and employees to further the interest of our nation." This article will explore the development of the National Museum of American Diplomacy and its goal to shed light on the history and practice of American diplomacy through the stories of its people.
Phase One - Becoming the U.S. Diplomacy Center
The effort to build the National Museum of American Diplomacy (NMAD) began in earnest in February 2000 thanks to former Maryland Senator Charles "Mac" Mathias and retired Ambassador Stephen Low. They founded the Foreign Affairs Museum Council, later known as the Diplomacy Center Foundation (DCF), as a 501(c) (3) to assist the Department in raising private funds to establish the U.S. Diplomacy Center (USDC), the original name of the museum. In November 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright addressed a crowd in the 21st Street lobby of the Main State building and, with a golden mallet in hand, smashed a wall signaling that work on the U.S. Diplomacy Center had begun. Over the next fourteen years, the USDC collected thousands of artifacts, and together with DCF, raised nearly $50 million for the project. In 2014, former Secretaries of State Kissinger, Baker, Albright, Powell, Clinton, and Kerry broke ground for construction of the museum. In January 2017, Secretary of State John Kerry, accompanied by Secretaries Albright, Powell, and Clinton, officially opened the beautiful glass pavilion of the U.S. Diplomacy Center at the 21st Street entrance of the State Department building.
Since its inception, the USDC has enjoyed support from each Secretary of State, including current Secretary Mike Pompeo. As Secretary Pompeo said of the project in 2018, "American diplomacy is central to our nation's greatness--telling the story of diplomatic achievement is...
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