Deputy Secretary Sonderling Shares How IMLS Ensures Museums and Libraries Empower Americans to Celebrate Their History as Learned Citizenry

This year, America celebrates the 250th anniversary of independence. This birthday year marks an incredible opportunity to tell 250 years of stories. It is the stories of America’s people and places that unite us as a nation. And these stories cannot be told and preserved without the vital role of America’s cultural institutions. 

At the small federal agency known as the Institute of Museum and Library Services, it is our mission to ensure that museums and libraries empower Americans to celebrate their history and live as learned citizens. This administration cares about cultural institutions and under President Trump, we are working overtime to restore them.

Recent years have sadly seen libraries and museums distracted from their important mission. Instead of telling the great American story, many cultural institutions have been hijacked by advocates of divisive social theories. Under the previous administration, the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported projects that viewed American history through a distorted lens, turning the less fortunate parts of American history into the entirety of the story itself. 

Unsurprisingly, this commitment to ideology at agencies like Institute of Museum and Library Services and the cultural institutions it supports had a negative impact on civic pride and the average American’s sense of belonging.

This battle for the soul of our cultural institutions shows how essential they really are. America has a vibrant history worthy of celebration, and for generations, our libraries and museums played an important role in preserving and sharing it.

It was Benjamin Franklin who first introduced the concept of a lending library in the lead up to the Revolution. Franklin recognized libraries’ importance to human flourishing and self-government, noting that they “made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries.”

Likewise, our museums have long served as keepers and promoters of our stories and traditions, preserving them for posterity and making them accessible to all.

To commemorate America’s super-centennial, the Institute of Museum and Library Services is supporting the production of Freedom Trucks. Freedom Trucks are 18-wheelers retrofitted with engaging and interactive exhibits on America’s unparalleled founding story. They will highlight the great people, events and places associated with the Revolution and formational years of our nation.

Freedom Trucks will drive across America throughout 2026, visiting local museums, libraries and other community locations in the hopes of creating a shared memory for a generation.

Under Trump’s leadership, the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ grantmaking has been refocused to align with its core mission: supporting museums and libraries that need its help — not groups preoccupied with polarizing social theories.

The institute will work with all institutions seeking federal funding to encourage suitable commemorations or historical preservation for America’s 250th birthday and beyond. We encourage those invested in this patriotic revival to apply and we look forward to reading your applications in the months ahead.

As we prepare to celebrate 250 years of the American story, it is essential that American cultural institutions do their part. We are heirs to a legacy unlike any other. I invite you to join me with your families and friends in visiting your local libraries and museums.

Together we will celebrate all the great achievements, hard-earned victories, beautiful works of art and literature, and incredible heroes that make our country the greatest in the world.