What Will Lonnie Bunch’s Legacy Be?

Lonnie Bunch III’s retirement from the Smithsonian Institution marks the end of an important chapter of the Smithsonian’s history. 

With a career spanning almost four decades, his tenure is defined by the growth of the Smithsonian’s museum body and his defense of the institution’s scholarly autonomy against the Trump administration. 

Early Days at the Smithsonian

Bunch was born in 1952 and raised in Newark, New Jersey. A historian by trade, he completed his B.A and M.A at the American University with a thesis on African American newspapers in the antebellum era. It was during this time that he first started working with the Smithsonian institution.

As a curator for the California African American Museum in the 1980s, Bunch was behind major exhibitions like The Black Olympians, 1904-1950 and Black Angelenos: The Afro-American in Los Angeles, 1850-1950. 

In 2005, he became the founding director of National Museum of African American History and Culture, back when the museum didn’t yet have a collection or a building to host it in. Bunch launched a nationwide initiative and grassroots treasure hunt, Save Our African American Treasures, inviting families from across America to share personal heirlooms and artefacts of their heritage. That same year, he was named one of the 100 most influential museum professionals of the 20th century by the American Association of Museums.

Bunch approached museums as civic spaces in which difficult histories can be confronted, contested and understood. He told The Guardian in 2019: “You’re a better institution when you have a diversity of people telling you the stories you want to explore.”

The 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

It’s a philosophy he carried on when he took his position as 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 2019. As the first African American historian in the role, Bunch spent the last eight years overseeing the development of the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, raising $2.5 billion for the Smithsonian’s Campaign for Our Shared Future (the largest fundraising campaign of a cultural institution) and launching new initiatives to promote education across the country like the Smithsonian Scientists Taking Astronomy to Rural Schools (STARS) . 

His last year at the institution was marked by a steady targeting of its exhibitions and staff by the Trump administration, from threats to remove funding to the placing of signs outside the Smithsonian National Museum of American History “warning” visitors and acusing the institution of inaccuracy. Although he refuted speculations that the repeated interference had anything to do with his retirement, Bunch admitted it had been a stressful period in an interview with The New York Times. 

Since his resignation announcement, Bunch’s legacy continues to be tested. In an outburst of Truth Social posts last week, Trump outlined a series of demands for the Smithsonian, including the dismantling  of José de Rivera’s sculpture at the south entrance of the National Museum of American History and the immediate opening of a dedicated exhibition to George Washington. 

These pressures and wider attacks over the museum’s presentation of race and American history emphasise the question at the centre of Bunch’s career: who has the authority to shape the national story? Although Bunch has yet to announce the next chapter of his career, he has said that he would continue working to protect the integrity of the Smithsonian and its mission to celebrate the complex history of the United States.