Harwit blames a blue ribbon advisory committee for failing to provide the critique required early in the process and a political motivated breach of confidentiality on a first draft by the Air Force Association for the failure of the process.
It does, however, provide a very revealing insider’s perspective on the exhibition development process and exposes many potential pitfalls that may be encountered as museums struggle to broaden stakeholder input into exhibition planning. Unfortunately, given his main focus on describing the dynamics of the controversy, Harwit’s book is not particularly analytical except in its closing chapter. In An Exhibit Denied Martin Harwit, the Director of NASM who eventually resigned as a result of the furore, presents a detailed narrative - almost meeting-by-meeting, internal memo-by-memo, and word-by-word negotiations on the script - outlining the development and revision of the exhibition proposal into one which was very close to being finally accepted by most of those concerned. It is clear from the unfolding of this controversy that the true purposes and processes of history are not accepted as legitimate endeavours for museums by a number of powerful players. The NASM was vilified under the unintentionally ironic catch-all criticism of “historical revisionism” and accused of being a “plaything for left-wing ideologies.” Professionals on NASM staff such as Canadian historian Michael Neufeld faced suspicion simply due to their country of origin and were condemned in the media as anti-American “politically correct pinheads.”Ī vital question which underlies these two books is whether or not our constituencies will permit museums to engage in any serious historical enterprise. These antagonists rejected the NASM’s attempt to combine commemoration with the perspectives of modern academic history on the decision to use this terrible weapon and the subsequent repercussions of doing so. Despite engaging in wide consultations, the NASM ran afoul of veterans, representatives of the “military-industrial complex”, powerful politicians, and the popular media. In its effort to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War in the Pacific precipitated when the famed B-29 Superfortress aircraft, the Enola Gay, dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan., Although serious doubts were expressed at the outset by NASM staff, this purpose was combined with academic historical analysis of the decision to use this terrible weapon and the subsequent repercussions of doing so. Acknowledged as the most vehemently disputed episode ever witnessed in the world of museums, it stands as a fearsome cautionary tale that should be heeded by every museum attempting to survive in these increasingly politicised times. The Enola Gay was the subject of a controversial exhibition planned for the Smithsonian Institution’s (SI) National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington, D.C., the world’s most visited museum. Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt (New York: Metropolitan Books, 1996), endnotes, 295 pages, ISBN: 0-8050-436-1 (hardcover), 0-8050-4378-X (paperback).Įnola Gay after Hiroshima mission, entering hardstand.
HISTORY WARS: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past, edited by Edward T. AN EXHIBIT DENIED: Lobbying the History of the Enola Gay, by Martin Harwit (New York: Copernicus, An Imprint of Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 1996), list of principals, chronology of significant events, endnotes, index, 477 pages, ISBN 7-3 (hardcover).