The Howard County
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VOL.9, NO.12
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Historian makes history as CEO
Jersey roots prepared him Bunch, the first African American secretary of the 173-year-old Smithsonian, grew up in a white suburb in northern New Jersey. “As the only black kid in the neighborhood, you learn so much about how people judge you without knowing you,” he said. “Jersey taught me to run, to fight and to talk my way out of things. Those are skills that have served me throughout my career.” Bunch credits his grandfather, a former sharecropper from North Carolina, with inspiring his love of history. Bunch was intrigued by photographs in his grandfather’s books, particularly those whose only caption read “anonymous.” “That so bothered me,” Bunch said. “I became a historian in part through photography. I looked at those pictures and tried to figure out what kind of life they had.”
PHOTO BY KATHY HUTCHINS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
By Margaret Foster A girlfriend convinced Lonnie G. Bunch III to jump out of an airplane when he was 17 years old. “I jump out, and I’m yelling, screaming, cursing,” Bunch — now the new head of the Smithsonian Institution — recalled in an interview with the Beacon. But he learned something important from the experience. “It taught me that I could do things that scare the heck out of me if I took a deep breath and took the step,” said Bunch, now 66. “That’s really what’s shaped my career.” Since then, he’s figuratively taken the leap into the unknown more than once. In his new role, for example, he oversees 19 museums, 21 libraries, research centers and the National Zoo, which together attract more than 30 million visitors a year. But perhaps even more of a leap of faith was his prior gig, as founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. When Bunch accepted that position in 2005, the museum was little more than an idea. It had no money, no artifacts — not even a plot of land. Bunch tells the story of how that museum, the National Mall’s newest, finally opened in 2016 in his most recent book, A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama and Trump, which was published in September.
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Natural beauty meets Asian flair in Vancouver; plus, mustsee country music landmarks from Chattahoochee, Georgia to Luckenbach, Texas page 23
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Historian Lonnie G. Bunch III is shown accepting the NAACP President’s Award in 2017 for his work as founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Bunch, who recently published a memoir about the museum’s creation, was installed as the new Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on Nov. 1. He is the first African American to hold the position.
Bunch attended college in Washington, D.C. in the early 1970s, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from American University. In his early career he was curator of history and program manager for the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. In his book, he recalls sleeping in the museum for a week to guard the collection, which included Muhammad Ali’s boxing glove. After working as curator of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. from 1989 to 2000, he moved to Chicago for a five-year stint as director of the Chicago Historical Society. After that, Bunch spent 11 years as
founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In the process, which he calls “my calling,” he crossed paths with presidents, historians like Studs Terkel, celebrities like Oprah Winfrey (who has donated over $20 million to the museum), and descendants of enslaved people, who donated artifacts to the Smithsonian.
Building a collection Inspired by PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow,” Bunch put out a national call in 2008 for artifacts through a program called Save Our See LONNIE BUNCH, page 28
It’s lights, music, action when Mannheim Steamroller rolls through Maryland on its 35th annual holiday tour; plus, best cookbooks this season page 27
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