Things over at the Smithsonian are about to get a little bit pricier. The Institute has just announced that it will charge visitors five dollars to enter a section of a special butterfly exhibit. This is only the most recent misstep by a prestigious institute recently marred by scandal, most significantly the resignation of its former Secretary, Lawrence Smalls. Instead of changing its commendable and longstanding policy of free admission, the Smithsonian should use this moment to start anew and regain its past reputation as one of D.C.’s most amazing resources, open to all.
To be fair, the fee is only for one area in the butterfly exhibit, a climate controlled room with butterflies flitting around that visitors can walk through, and it will be waived one day each week. Regardless, it’s still a disconcerting departure from the previous policy and could potentially set an unfortunate precedent.
This isn’t the only move made to restrict the Smithsonian’s holdings from the public. The Institute has created a new network, Smithsonian Networks, in partnership with Showtime. Unfortunately, the agreement gives Showtime the right of first refusal on any work that uses large amounts of material from the Smithsonian archives. This is also an unfortunate development that should be reversed as well.
These two pieces of news shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider the fate of Smalls, the recently departed Secretary of the Smithsonian, who resigned after it was revealed that he had accumulated $90,000 worth of unauthorized expenses, including private jets for personal travel. In his personal conduct, Smalls was more concerned about money than the well-being of the Institute he ran. It seems like the same was true of his professional conduct.
As the primary holder of our nation’s collective history, the importance of the Smithsonian cannot be overstated. From Lindbergh’s “The Spirit of St. Louis” to Seinfeld’s puffy shirt, it houses artifacts which chart the development of our nation as a whole. It is vital that everything in the Smithsonian, no matter how small, still remain free to the public. It was created as an “establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” according to its founding statement. The last thing it should be doing is enacting policies that accomplish the opposite.
