A "Pursuits of Knowledge" conversation with Anthea Hartig, Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and Elizabeth Babcock, Director of the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, from March 11th, 2025.
About the Presentation
In celebration of Women's History Month, Dr. Anthea Hartig, Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and Dr. Elizabeth Babcock, Director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum engaged in a dynamic conversation about sharing women’s stories across the Smithsonian museum network. They discussed past and current efforts to elevate the diverse perspectives, contributions, and accomplishments of women throughout history, and their profound impact on the story of America.
About the Speakers
Dr. Elizabeth C. Babcock is the director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, bringing over 20 years of museum leadership experience to the role. A cultural anthropologist and educator with experience in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors, Babcock has deep expertise in public engagement and education strategies, public-private partnerships and organizational development. As founding director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, Babcock will guide the new museum through a transformative period. Established by Congress in December 2020, the museum advances the understanding of women’s contributions and accomplishments throughout U.S. history. Babcock will set the vision for the museum and oversee the acquisition of a founding collection, curation of permanent and temporary exhibitions, and expansion of digital education resources beginning before the museum’s construction.
Babcock most recently served as the first president and CEO of Forever Balboa Park, a new organization building on the work of two prior park organizations that acts as the City of San Diego’s key non-profit partner stewarding Balboa Park. Prior to leading Forever Balboa Park, Babcock served as the chief public engagement officer and Roberts-Wilson Dean of Education at the California Academy of Sciences. Babcock also served as the vice president of education and library collections at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago from 2002 to 2010, and as an applied anthropologist in the museum, environmental and technological fields.
Dr. Anthea Hartig is the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the first woman to hold the position since the museum opened in 1964. Hartig oversees 216 employees, a budget over $48 million, and a collection that includes 1.8 million objects and more than three shelf-miles of archives. She officially began her tenure on February 18, 2019.
Currently, Hartig is leading a vibrant new strategic plan to take the museum through the 250th of the United States in 2026 and beyond. It challenges the museum to be the most accessible, inclusive, relevant and sustainable public history institution.
An award-winning public historian and cultural heritage expert, Hartig was the executive director and CEO of the California Historical Society (CHS) in San Francisco prior to joining the Smithsonian. Additionally, she was the director of the Western Region for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, taught undergraduate and graduate courses in US History and Public History, worked for two city governments, served under two California Governors, and has been involved in historic preservation and public history projects since the 1990s. Hartig is a third-generation native of Southern California, where she grew up in the greater Pomona Valley. She earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in history at the University of California, Riverside, her bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied as an undergraduate and graduate student at the College of William and Mary. Dedicated to public service and non-profit advocacy, Hartig has served on numerous California State Commissions, task forces, and Boards including the California Preservation Foundation, National Council for Public History and, most recently, the past President of the Organization of American Historians.
About the Museums
The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum expands the story of America through the often-untold accounts and accomplishments of women—individually and collectively—to better understand our past and inspire our future. Through new stories, we all benefit from a deeper historical understanding of our nation. Since the establishment of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in 2020, the Smithsonian has named a 25-member advisory council and has identified two optimal sites for the museum to be located, which are currently pending congressional approval. In addition, the museum has raised more than $65.5 million dollars to date.
The National Museum of American History’s mission is to empower people to create a just and compassionate future by exploring, preserving, and sharing the complexity of our past. The museum holds a wide range of objects that illustrate women's lives, their accomplishments, and contributions to American society and culture. It also houses some of the Smithsonian’s best-known treasures: the Star-Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired the words for the National Anthem; the hat worn by President Abraham Lincoln the night he was assassinated; the writing desk used by Thomas Jefferson as he drafted the Declaration of Independence; the Woolworth lunch counter that was the site of the 1960 student sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina; and Dorothy’s ruby slippers worn in the movie The Wizard of Oz now on view in the museum’s new “Entertainment Nation”/“Nación del espectáculo” exhibition.