National Archives apologizes for altering images of women’s march

WASHINGTON — Officials at the National Archives on Saturday said they had removed from display an altered photo from the 2017 Women’s March in which signs held by marchers critical of President Donald Trump had been blurred.

In tweets on Saturday, the museum apologized and said: “We made a mistake.”

“As the National Archives of the United States, we are and have always been completely committed to preserving our archival holdings, without alteration,” one of the tweets said.

“This photo is not an archival record held by the @usnatarchives, but one we licensed to use as a promotional graphic,” it tweeted. “Nonetheless, we were wrong to alter the image.”

The altered 49-by-69-inch photograph was part of a display that showed the 2017 march from one perspective and, viewed from another angle, shifted to show a 1913 black-and-white image of a women’s suffrage march also on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The display linked momentous demonstrations for women’s rights more than a century apart on the same stretch of pavement.

Marchers in the 2017 photograph were shown carrying a variety of signs, at least four of which were altered by the museum. A placard that proclaimed “God Hates Trump” had Trump blotted out so that it read “God Hates.” A sign that read

“Trump & GOP — Hands Off Women” had the word Trump blurred. Signs with messages that referenced women’s anatomy were also digitally altered.

The altered photograph greeted visitors to “Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote,” an exhibit that opened in May celebrating the centennial of women’s suffrage. The 19th Amendment, which was ratified in 1920, prohibits the federal government and states from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex.

The museum tweeted Saturday that the display would be replaced “with one that uses the unaltered image” and that museum officials would “start a thorough review of our exhibit policies and procedures so that this does not happen again.”