Tag Archives: National Museum of American Diplomacy

Culture

Museum Shows How Diplomacy Shapes The World

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A 6 MINUTE READ by Noelani Kirschner for The Silo.

After the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin sailed from Philadelphia to Paris to enlist France’s support for the American Revolution. The journey Franklin began that October — the first official U.S. diplomatic trip — would eventually lead to an alliance with France that helped the United States win its independence from Britain.

“From the beginning, diplomacy was central to securing American independence and would continue to shape the security and prosperity of the growing United States,” according to the National Museum of American Diplomacy , which reopened after renovations on October 1.

Located at the Department of State in Washington, the museum tells the story of how U.S. foreign policy helped shape America and the world. “It’s about helping our young people understand that their government works for you,” says Lauren Fischer, the museum’s acting director.

Left: Section of Berlin Wall Right: Map of Africa (State Dept./Evan Eile)
The National Museum of American Diplomacy features a section of the Berlin Wall and a display of the State Department’s map of the world divided into six geographic regions. (State Dept./Evan Eile)

250 years of diplomacy

The museum’s permanent collection includes flags of other nations and exhibits on past U.S. secretaries of state. A digital map shows the world through the eyes of a U.S. diplomat — divided into six geographic regions — a nod to the scope of American diplomacy.

The museum reopens with a new exhibition, Among the Powers of the Earth , which runs through summer 2027 and showcases 30 objects from U.S. diplomatic missions since the country’s founding. Featured items include a smallsword worn by U.S. diplomats in the 18th century, the original signature page of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which is on loan from the National Archives and Records Administration until early January 2027, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence, commissioned in 1823 in advance of the 50th anniversary of America’s founding.

Negotiated by Franklin, John Adams and John Jay, the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution and “codified the intention stated in the 1776 Declaration to place the United States equally ‘among the powers of the Earth,’” says Alison Mann, the museum’s historian and head curator. The 1823 copy of the Declaration of Independence was among those created from a copperplate engraving that President John Quincy Adams, the sixth U.S. president and a former secretary of state, commissioned to preserve the Founders’ words for future generations.

From left: Copy of Declaration of Independence, sword, treaty signature page (National Museum of American Diplomacy)
From left: A copy of the Declaration of Independence made from an 1823 engraving, a diplomat’s sword and the signature page of the Treaty of Paris. (National Museum of American Diplomacy)

Bugged Brick from U.S. Embassy Moscow

Soviet Unionc. 1960

Throughout the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in espionage against one another in the hope of gathering information that could give them some sort of advantage in the relationship, or if a direct military confrontation ever occurred. Efforts to eavesdrop inside secure embassies, or on diplomatic personnel in general, were one such effort. This unusual looking device protruding from a brick is an electronic “bug”—essentially a microphone that could transmit conversations remotely. It was found in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in the 1960s by Diplomatic Security personnel conducting a search for such devices. The narrow “stick” protruding from the electronics (the end with the wire) was a hollow tube that could covertly protrude through a very narrow hole drilled through a brick. The sound would travel through the hollow tube and into the electronics, which allowed them to be transmitted.

  • Source/Credit:Transfer from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Department of State
  • Accession Number:2019.0008.01.01-.02
  • Created:c. 1960
  • Acquired:2019

Teaching the next generation

The exhibit’s online resources examine how the Founding Fathers’ carefully chosen words maximized the Declaration of Independence’s global influence, making it a model for the founding documents of other countries, including Ireland.

The museum’s interactive displays, public outreach and online resources offer insight into how diplomacy works. Online simulations featuring real-world scenarios, from nuclear nonproliferation to wildlife trafficking, allow students to see how, as Mann says, “Diplomacy makes the impossible seem possible.”

“No other museum brings diplomatic history to the forefront in its exhibits, and no other institution is solely dedicated to collecting items of American diplomacy and the stories of the men and women who practice diplomacy,” says Fischer.

The National Museum of American Diplomacy is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays. See here for details on the reopening and visitation.

Politics

How The Monroe Doctrine Helped America Find Its Footing

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United States Department of State

This article is a 5 MINUTE READ

Left: Oil painting of President Monroe (White House Historical Association/Samuel F.B. Morse) Right: The Monroe Doctrine (National Archives)
Then-President James Monroe, seen in an 1819 portrait, rejected foreign interference in a landmark 1823 address to Congress, known as the Monroe Doctrine. (White House Historical Association/Samuel F.B. Morse, National Archives)

In 1817, when James Monroe was inaugurated as America’s fifth president, the United States was a young country finding its place in the world.

It had been a few decades since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, yet European powers still held lands in the Western Hemisphere. Spain was fighting to retain control of Mexico, which won independence in 1821. And during the War of 1812, the British occupied Washington and burned the White House.

In a December 2, 1823, address to Congress, President Monroe rejected foreign interference in the Western Hemisphere and asserted U.S. leadership in the region. “The American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers,” he said.

As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Monroe Doctrine  stands as a milestone of U.S. sovereignty. Crafted with then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, the policy called for separate spheres of influence for the Americas and Europe, and opposed European colonization and interference in the Western Hemisphere.

Echoes of the founding

The Monroe Doctrine served “as a way to build the consciousness of America as independent” and promoted a “sense of nationhood and citizenship and common purpose,” says John Grant, a political science professor at Hillsdale College.

Painting of President Monroe's Cabinet (© Bettman/Getty Images)
Clyde DeLand’s 1912 painting depicts Monroe’s deliberations with advisers including then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, far left. (© Bettman/Getty Images)

Grant notes the doctrine followed the U.S. defense of Washington during the War of 1812, which showed Britain, “you’re not going to reconquer us; that’s not going to happen.”

Alison Mann, a curator of the Department of State’s National Museum of American Diplomacy in Washington, says the Monroe Doctrine built on the earlier-President Thomas Jefferson’s efforts to assert U.S. economic power and avoid European entanglements. Monroe consulted Adams on whether the young nation could resist foreign influence, asking if a European power were to try to colonize the United States, could the country rebuff the attempt with economic and military might. Adams said yes.

For Grant, the Hillsdale professor, the doctrine asserts America’s founding principles in a changing world. Monroe and Adams — who after serving as secretary of state would succeed Monroe as president — were the last U.S. presidents to have participated in America’s founding.

Monroe crossed the Delaware River  with George Washington on Christmas night 1776 for an ambush that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War.

Adams served as an aide to his father, John Adams, during negotiations for the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war and secured U.S. independence.

For the Silo, By Noelani Kirschner/ ShareAmerica.