Lonnie G. Bunch III is preparing to leave one of America’s most influential cultural institutions at a moment when the Smithsonian may need his experience more than ever. According to the Smithsonian’s official retirement announcement, Bunch will retire as secretary at the end of 2026 after nearly 38 years of service to the institution. He has led the Smithsonian since 2019, becoming both its first African-American secretary and its first historian to hold the position.
His departure comes after months of escalating pressure from the Trump administration over how Smithsonian museums address race, slavery, inequality, and other parts of American history. But Bunch has rejected the idea that the political fight drove him out.
According to The Washington Post, the 73-year-old historian said he had been considering retirement for about a year and decided it was time after spending several weeks with his children and grandchildren during the summer.
“For, I don’t know, 45 years, work has taken precedence over family, and I just said at 73, enough’s enough,” Bunch said.
That distinction matters. Bunch is leaving while the Smithsonian is under political pressure, but he says he is not leaving because of that pressure.
“It is time for my next chapter,” Bunch said while announcing his retirement, adding that he plans to continue working to “protect the integrity of the Smithsonian.”
What the Smithsonian is losing, however, goes far beyond a longtime administrator.
Bunch leaves behind a leadership record that includes building one of the country’s most important Black cultural institutions essentially from the ground up, guiding the Smithsonian through the COVID era and periods of social unrest, expanding its educational and digital ambitions, overseeing the development of two future national museums, and leading the largest fundraising campaign in Smithsonian history.
Perhaps the clearest example of his leadership is the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
According to the Smithsonian’s account of Bunch’s career, when Bunch became the museum’s founding director in 2005, the project had no building, no collection, no funding, and only one staff member.
Eleven years later, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on the National Mall.
That transformation required far more than historical expertise. Bunch had to help build a collection, raise money, cultivate donors, navigate Congress, manage political relationships, and convince Americans with very different backgrounds that a museum devoted to Black history belonged at the center of the national story.
According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the museum has now welcomed visitors from every country and was preparing to receive its 14 millionth visitor as it approached its 10th anniversary.
The museum’s collection also reflects the scope of what Bunch helped build. According to the museum, it includes Harriet Tubman’s hymnal and shawl, Emmett Till’s original casket, Louis Armstrong’s trumpet, George Clinton’s Mothership, and Chuck Berry’s red Cadillac.
Bunch once described his vision for the museum simply: “It would be a place that made America better.”
That achievement helped establish Bunch as more than a museum director. It showed that he could take an institution that existed largely as an idea and turn it into a functioning national museum capable of telling painful history while attracting millions of visitors.
When Bunch became Smithsonian secretary in June 2019, his responsibilities expanded dramatically.
His portfolio eventually included 21 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, research centers, and education programs. He also oversaw work connected to two additional museums in development, the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
His tenure was tested almost immediately.
According to the Smithsonian Institution Archives, Bunch led the institution as Smithsonian facilities closed during the COVID pandemic in March 2020, forcing museums, research operations, and public programming to adapt to an unprecedented shutdown.
The Smithsonian credits Bunch with placing a stronger emphasis on education and digital accessibility during his tenure. According to the institution’s history of its secretaries, he created the position of Under Secretary for Education and pushed the Smithsonian to reach audiences beyond people physically able to visit Washington.
His leadership also produced a major financial milestone.
Bunch spearheaded the Campaign for Our Shared Future, which surpassed its $2.5 billion fundraising goal in February 2026, one year earlier than planned. The Smithsonian described it as the largest fundraising campaign undertaken by a cultural organization.
That ability to secure financial support is especially important for an institution that depends on both federal funding and private giving. It also underscores why Bunch’s departure creates a leadership challenge that extends well beyond debates about museum exhibits.
By the final portion of his tenure, however, Bunch was increasingly forced to defend the Smithsonian itself.
The conflict intensified after the White House began challenging how Smithsonian museums presented American history.
In March 2025, a White House executive order directed officials to target what the administration called improper or divisive ideology within Smithsonian museums. Several months later, the administration launched a “comprehensive internal review” of eight museums and said the goal was to ensure they would “celebrate American exceptionalism.”
Trump also publicly criticized Smithsonian museums over their treatment of slavery.
The administration increasingly accused the institution of presenting American history through what it viewed as divisive or unpatriotic perspectives. Bunch, meanwhile, defended the Smithsonian’s responsibility to present a broad historical record.
The confrontation became even sharper in July 2026.
A White House report accused the National Museum of American History of “extreme political activism.” The administration argued that exhibits and programming had become too focused on social justice, race, and other subjects it considered ideological.
Trump also issued an executive order declaring, “Smithsonian leadership does not present American history as a shared national inheritance to be taught and celebrated, but instead views American history as a ‘prime tool’ to advance ideas of social justice and the radical transformation of our society.”
Bunch pushed back.
Bunch called the administration’s description “not a fair characterization.”
He also defended Smithsonian employees and the institution’s approach to historical research.
“At the Smithsonian, our work is driven by scholarship, accuracy and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story,” Bunch wrote to staff.
That defense fits the approach Bunch had already adopted inside the Smithsonian.
He established a Public Trust Committee in 2024 to strengthen how Smithsonian content is reviewed. In 2025, the institution also revised its content standards to emphasize scholarship, accuracy, nonpartisanship, multiple perspectives and careful treatment of politically sensitive subjects.
That record complicates claims that Bunch simply resisted scrutiny. The Smithsonian says his administration had already been working on internal standards meant to strengthen public trust and ensure historical material could withstand examination.
The administration nevertheless continued applying pressure.
Federal officials eventually threatened to withdraw certain forms of government support from the Smithsonian, including assistance connected to grants, procurement, and artifact loans. Those threats emerged shortly before Bunch publicly announced his retirement.
Still, Bunch told The Washington Post that he intended to defend the institution until his last day in the job.
“We’re at a time when people are challenging that independence,” he said, “but I feel very strongly that it is as independent as we were before.”
That may be one of the most consequential parts of his departure.
The next Smithsonian secretary will not simply inherit museums, researchers, collections, and budgets. That person will inherit an ongoing argument about institutional independence and about how the United States publicly interprets its own history.
Bunch brought unusual experience to that challenge because he understood the Smithsonian at nearly every level.
He first joined the institution in 1978 and worked at the National Air and Space Museum before holding curatorial and leadership positions at the National Museum of American History. He later became president of the Chicago Historical Society, where the Smithsonian says he led a capital campaign, reorganized the institution, and expanded its public outreach.
He returned to Washington in 2005 to create the African American history museum and eventually rose to the Smithsonian’s highest office.
During his years as secretary, Bunch also continued pushing major projects forward. The Smithsonian says he oversaw the development of the National Museum of the American Latino and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. In August 2026, the Board of Regents selected the historic Arts and Industries Building as the permanent location for the future Latino museum.
Those accomplishments help explain why his exit is more significant than a typical leadership change.
Bunch leaves after demonstrating that he could build institutions, raise historic amounts of private money, navigate Congress and different administrations, oversee a sprawling cultural organization, and defend the Smithsonian during one of the most politically contentious periods in its recent history.
Smithsonian Board of Regents Chair Franklin D. Raines said he had witnessed Bunch’s leadership for more than two decades and credited him with helping the institution illuminate the country’s past while expanding knowledge, creativity and innovation.
Smithsonian Chancellor and Chief Justice John Roberts also praised Bunch, saying he had “pursued excellence in the telling of our nation’s story.”
Even Bunch’s departure reflects the tension that has defined the final stage of his tenure. He says family, age and decades of demanding work drove his decision, not Trump’s attacks. Yet the institution he is leaving remains caught in the very fight he has spent his final months navigating.
The Smithsonian Board of Regents will appoint an acting secretary and then conduct a national search for Bunch’s permanent successor, according to the Smithsonian.
Whoever takes the job will inherit the institution Bunch helped strengthen, but also the unanswered question surrounding his exit: whether the next leader will have the same combination of historical knowledge, fundraising credibility, institutional experience and willingness to defend the Smithsonian’s ability to tell the complicated parts of America’s story.
