Disappearing Ink—The continued erasure of our Nation’s history

The current administration continues its effort to sanitize U.S. history and it’s as if our history was written in disappearing ink. 

Over these last few months, we’ve witnessed our collective history become increasingly endangered from cuts made to federal level grants, mass firings and Reductions in Force (RIF) that include top leadership at the National Archive and Library of Congress, and the active scrubbing of historical context from museum exhibits. Today we want to focus on the National Park Service (NPS) and how the history provided by more than 400 park sites is in jeopardy. 

WHAT'S HAPPENING

On June 13, 2025, the National Council of Public History (NCPH) put out an Advocacy Alert sharing that NPS is now required to post signs encouraging the public to report interpretive signs that appear to disparage Americans or that exhibit “improper ideology”. The directive comes as part of the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” order given by the Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum on May 20, 2025. According to the order, NPS sites have 120 days to review all signage and remove any “inappropriate” material. Publicly available U.S. history will look very different in the Parks come September. 

Pass the sanitizer… 

We’ve started to see the effects of this pressure campaign. For example, at the time of this writing Muir Woods National Monument has officially removed the historical context of women’s contributions as well as the acknowledgement of racist ideologies held by key figures. We don’t need to tell you that the removal of important contextual history is not just inaccurate, but dangerous. This attempt to simplify complex history is an erasure of critical information needed to accurately perceive our current context and the vital role historically marginalized peoples have played in helping build our country. 

But with this administration’s call for policing, we’re also seeing resistance. Park visitors are objecting by utilizing the tip line to express their criticism and displeasure regarding the federal government’s attempts to whitewash our shared history. 

WHAT CAN BE DONE

There are a few ways you can push back against these sanitization attempts.  

In reaction to the DOI order, the Data Rescue Project (DPR) announced a #SaveOurSigns initiative. The goal of the #SaveOurSigns initiative is to create a record of the non-sanitized interpretive signs at NPS trails, monuments, exhibits, etc. so that this information can be preserved should this history actually disappear. 

It’s simple: 

• Visit a National Park
• Take photos of any signage you see
• Upload the images 

Guerilla Archiving 

The DPR is one example of what we (at Relicura) refer to as guerilla archiving. This is the act of individuals or collectives who capture and archive endangered public information to preserve it from complete erasure. And it’s not just DPR. The following are a few more examples of guerilla archiving in our online spaces. And you can help! 

• Mirroring Sites and Web Archives: Mirrored sites like Webrecorder preserve the original URL structure (as close as possible), which helps with accuracy and navigation. Webrecorder host an archive of federal website content from the transition period between the Biden and Trump administrations. This is a good source to check whether government sites have changed and how.
• Archive Team: Affiliated with Archive.org, Archive Team has an ambitious set of projects to archive the internet including US government websites. You can follow their work, support them, or even join their team.
• Data Hoarders: The r/DataHoarder subreddit is a collective of individuals doing what they can to capture online history. The subreddit is a great place for information, resources, and ideas on how you can help.
• DIY: Download publicly available information and documents when and where you can. Keep your own little archive! 

This blog post content was originally included in our community newsletter: The Moment – where we respond quickly and thoughtfully to impactful events and decisions that challenge or disrupt our profession.