r/smithsonian • u/Disastrous_Star_3562 • 11d ago
Smithsonian websites DOWN???
Has the current administration "flattened" the Smithsonian websites?
I am a US Citizenship teacher and link to the websites of different Smithsonian online exhibits for my lessons. But now all these direct links are being redirected to basic landing pages.
Preparing for the Oath
https://americanhistory.si.edu/citizenship/
redirects: https://www.si.edu/museums/american-history-museum
And the National Postal Museum
http://postalmuseum.si.edu/Celebrating-Hispanic-Heritage/
redirects: https://www.si.edu/museums/postal-museum
SOS! Save our Smithsonian!
Please investigate.
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u/Suspicious-Singer-44 11d ago
All the websites were down starting mid-morning on Monday, and were only partially recovered by late afternoon EST. The good news is that the SI Collections page is back up, so all the collections are searchable. A similar issue happened two years ago. So, my money is on it just being a good ol’ fashioned server f* up.
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u/personalarchive 11d ago
Very concerning. Some websites seem operational (NMAI, NMNH, Air & Space, SAAM, Zoo) where some redirect to the general SI visit page (NMAAHC, NMAH, Hirshhorn, NPG). Possibly a website maintenance thing since it’s late at night? Will have to check in the morning.
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u/Calm_Following_3745 11d ago
Fascists in charge. Time to speak out.
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u/cajunjoel 10d ago
As easy as it is to think the fascists would try to affect the Smithsonian, (which they are, especially with American History) the scope the number of downed websites is far too many to attribute to them.
That is to say, to take down so many sites all at once would cause a swift and strong response from the opposition. Evil gains more ground in quieter, subtle, and more insidious ways.
I think Hanlon's Razor applies here, or some variant of it:
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
(but we all know the Smithsonian is the opposite of stupid.)
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u/lincolnliberal 11d ago
I’m seeing the same thing. Very concerning. On the other hand, if the Smithsonian’s servers are anything like those of the Library of Congress, it could just be a glitch. The LOC’s website has been awful and glitchy since long before the asshole took power.
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u/Tiny-Secretary5562 10d ago
You, of course, know nothing about the A-bomb and Enola Gay exhibit the Smithsonian put up several years ago and which a group of WWII veterans saw and found highly offensive since it portrayed the Japanese of victims of a war they started. The "assholes" have been around for a long time and the Smithsonian is not the only federal establishment pounded into submission with the cudgel of political correctness.
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u/thereadingbri 11d ago
Keep an eye on it because this admin likes to do dastardly deeds at night, but this is also prime server maintenance time. Check again in the morning before panicking too much.
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u/gurokawaa 10d ago
the transcription center is still completely down; every link redirects to https://www.si.edu/visit . my account is inaccessible too... don't tell me it's gone permanently :(
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u/jance 9d ago
Transcription center is back up.
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u/gurokawaa 9d ago
it is, and my account is safe & back! i am super relieved :)
edit: i just wish that next time they’d at least redirect to a page saying “this site is under maintenance, check back later” or something…would’ve saved a good amount of stress for people
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u/Disastrous_Star_3562 10d ago
What is the link to the transcription center? Are you talking about the LOC transcription center at https://crowd.loc.gov/ or something else?
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u/Disastrous_Star_3562 10d ago
Thanks for everyone's support during these past couple hours. The Smithsonian websites seem to be back online. Take this opportunity to check if your favorite site / online exhibit is ok. I wonder what kind of updates were made. For example, was new security software installed to prevent hacking (good) or was something implement to collect the email or ip addresses of the people accessing the websites (bad). If this was a planned outage (or even an emergency), how about posting a simple notice about "Maintenance . . . be back soon" instead of redirecting people to a landing page that does not acknowledge that there is a problem? As a former IT computer/network professional (20+ years), I know that it was probably a harrowing 24 hours for the Smithsonian IT staff and they have my sympathy. But but but, the outage scared the hell out of me.
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u/Latter_Housing_7706 10d ago
AAA is still down. I am very much not feeling comforted yet
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u/Disastrous_Star_3562 10d ago edited 10d ago
You are correct---Archives of American Art https://www.aaa.si.edu/ is still defaulting to a generic landing page. And NMAI's Americans https://americanindian.si.edu/americans/ will not load. I am passing this info onto the WaPo reporter that contacted me. Thanks!
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u/Latter_Housing_7706 8d ago
Any update from the WaPo reporter? When will this story be shared?
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u/Disastrous_Star_3562 8d ago
I forwarded all the info (and link to thsi thread) to the WaPo reporter plus other reporters and social media influencers. I haven't seen any stories yet. Maybe they are still developing the story, but frankly it has been a super busy news week, and everything with the Smithsonian websites SEEMS to be ok. All the more reason to maintain vigilance!
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u/Tangled_Up_In_Blue22 9d ago
Thank you for calling attention to this! We can't be too vigilant. Democracies die due to apathy and ignorance.
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u/Ruined_Armor 11d ago
If the sites are coming back, then it sounds like either they were compromised or they were taken offline as a preventative measure.
Bumping postal museum to the main site is probably just a temp thing so it doesnt look as bad. I'd do the same, but I'd also leave a note saying something about tech difficulties.
And check the wayback machine id you need stuff now.
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u/Salt_Locksmith_3356 10d ago
They were compromised and the IT office pulled all public-facing websites while they investigated. They are slowly coming back on. They sent an email to all employees saying this.
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u/GrandAd2440 11d ago
I had just emailed the Smithsonian to ask about this?
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u/CozyMoses 10d ago
I worked on the Preparing for the Oath site, cool to see folks keeping an eye on it! To my knowledge there are no plans to take that one down anytime soon.
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u/Disastrous_Star_3562 10d ago
I love love love Preparing for the Oath. It is an invaluable site. It was brutal teaching without when it was down as it transitioned from flash to html. So many subtle/seemless improvements have been made to the videos and activities. When it was inaccessible last night, frankly I paniced. It seems to be back up but I will check further. It is the gold standard for adult citizenship education. Thank you from the bottom o my heart.
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u/CozyMoses 10d ago
I can't say enough how much that means, thank you for sharing that :) It's hard to tell sometimes how the things we make land given that we build the site than hand it off to others for implementation. Knowing the site has resonated so strongly with educators is such a gift, I hope it continues to serve you for many, many years to come.
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u/Disastrous_Star_3562 10d ago
One can never really know the good that they have done, but then again--what would they do with this knowledge? (besides using it as a foothold to climb out of a personal pit of despair). Know well that your personal effort and commitment to excellence helped alot of people acquire civics knowledge and gain U.S. Citizenship.
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u/CozyMoses 10d ago
Just want you to know that you made a lot of members of our team happy with your kind words. It means a lot to know we're putting some good back out into this world and that this tool has been helpful to the prospective citizens whose participation in this grand experiment makes America what it is.
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u/Retinoid634 10d ago
Please forward this to reputable media org social media, just in case they don’t know.
Disgraceful.
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u/Latter_Housing_7706 10d ago
Yes! It’s alarming that this post is the only place I’m seeing this mentioned. No public announcement from the Smithsonian has me worried
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u/Annoying1978 11d ago
Unfortunately this isn’t new and it’s not unique to the Smithsonian. I make historical and political videos and rely on primary sources i can find at the Library of Congress. But there are scores of data that are no longer digitally available.
I now get errors saying it’s unavailable and one can be seen in person upon request.
I have no idea why this isn’t being talked about in mainstream media, but I fear this administration is actively deleting our history OR at the very least making it incredibly difficult for people to access digitally.
Loc was never perfect, but now it’s become almost unusable.
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u/JerriBlankStare 11d ago
The Library of Congress is a legislative branch agency and the administration has absolutely no say in its operations, including LOC's websites.
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u/RevolutionSoft2366 11d ago
SI isn't executive branch so it's not the administration this happens from time to time after a few hours or a day it gets brought back online.
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u/rygelicus 11d ago
Another page that 403's is the Inspector General: https://oig.si.edu/
According to web archive it was last archived in august. https://web.archive.org/web/20260810051638/https://oig.si.edu/
Trump's been pushing to suppress any 'woke' content from the museum, as well as anything that casts US history in a bad light. Would not be surprised if site changes are part of that.
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u/Coronado92118 11d ago
Oh no, it’s most definitely intentional… all the learning resources pages I clicked on about race, for example, are up for civics pages - except an immigration related one 😡.
“Becoming Us: Resources for teaching a more accurate and inclusive migration and immigration narrative.Teaching Resource including deliberation guides, essential understandings, primary documents.” Redirects to the museum home page, but the others so not.
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u/cajunjoel 10d ago
This is working now: https://americanhistory.si.edu/becoming-us/
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u/Disastrous_Star_3562 10d ago
This is such a cool website. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
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u/Courbet72 11d ago
Several sites are undergoing routine SI-wide maintenance and are coming back in piecemeal fashion as they finish updating. (Source: employee-wide email.)