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Dispatch

"When was your gender revealed?": Mace's five minutes with the Smithsonian's American History director

Nancy Mace spent her five minutes at the House DOGE subcommittee's Smithsonian hearing demanding yes-or-no answers from Dr. Anthea Hartig, the PhD historian who has led the National Museum of American History since 2019. On video, verbatim: 'what is a woman,' 'when was your gender revealed,' and a diary she called 'featuring a six-year-old' that the museum says was written by a 13-year-old.

"When was your gender revealed?": Mace's five minutes with the Smithsonian's American History director

Rep. Nancy Mace: "So when was your gender revealed to you, Dr. Hartig?"

Dr. Anthea Hartig: "So I don't really think that's relevant to the conversation."

That exchange came in the final minute of Rep. Nancy Mace's five minute questioning round at a House Oversight hearing on the Smithsonian, July 21, 2026. The witness was Dr. Anthea Hartig, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The full round is on video.

PBS NewsHour's video of Rep. Mace's full five minute round · July 21, 2026.

This dispatch is built on the hearing video and on reporting by Tessa Solomon at ARTnews, NPR, and the Associated Press (byline Steven Sloan, carried by Fortune). Every quote below is verbatim from the hearing video's caption track or attributed to the named outlet.

The hearing

The House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), chaired by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), held the hearing, titled "Rewriting American History: Examining the Smithsonian's Efforts to Reshape the Past," on July 21, 2026 in Rayburn 2154. It ran roughly two hours.

The immediate trigger was the White House Domestic Policy Council's 162-page July 4 report, "Saving America's Story," which accused the Smithsonian of "extreme political activism." The deeper backdrop is Executive Order 14253, "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History" (March 27, 2025), which directed the removal of "improper ideology" from the Smithsonian and directed that the American Women's History Museum "not recognize men as women in any respect."

The witness

Dr. Anthea M. Hartig is the Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the National Museum of American History. A PhD historian, she has led the museum since February 18, 2019, the first woman to hold the position since the museum opened in 1964. She oversees roughly 200 employees, a budget of more than $50 million, and a collection of 1.7 million objects. (Smithsonian bio)

The five minutes, exchange by exchange

Timestamps are from PBS NewsHour's video of the round.

0:02 · The greeting

Mace opened with a question about attendance:

Mace: "Dr. Hartig, how many children visited the National Museum of American History last year?"

Hartig: "Hi, good morning, ma'am."

Mace: "Answer the question, how many kids?"

Hartig: "Good morning, ma'am."

Hartig put total visitors at "Two million." Asked how many were children, she answered: "Ma'am, I don't know those exact figures for you."

0:26 · "Yes or no"

Mace said "yes or no" four times in the first fifty seconds of the round:

Mace: "Do you agree that educating children about American history is a core duty of the museum? Yes or no?"

Mace: "And are images of sexual fetishes appropriate for children? Yes or no?"

Hartig: "Ma'am, we strive to represent all Americans."

Moments later Mace accused the museum of "indoctrination, grooming of kids at an American history museum," adding "it sounds like you're proud of it."

2:05 · The diary

Mace turned to what she called "the girlhood exhibit" and a diary excerpt displayed in it.

Mace: "But it was a diary featuring a six-year-old."

Hartig: "Ma'am, girlhood, it's complicated, was not an exhibit designed for children."

Hartig: "The diary was of a 13-year-old going through puberty."

ARTnews independently reports that the diary excerpt was written by a 13-year-old. Mace pressed on: "OK, do you think that's an appropriate thing to put in an American history museum where there are children walking through?" Hartig: "We're talking about American history."

2:59 · "What is a woman"

Mace: "Today, do you believe that men can become women?"

Hartig: "Ma'am, as the director of the museum, that's not relevant in this case."

Mace: "It's very relevant. You've got men dressed up as women, and you have them on displays in front of kids."

Mace then raised RuPaul: "It's a man. RuPaul is a man who dresses like a woman, literally." Per the hearing's caption track, Hartig replied "Correct.", a reply also reported by Fox News and theGrio.

Mace asked "What is a woman, Dr. Hartig?" and then "What is a woman?" twice more, three times in total. Hartig's answer: "We strive to represent and not categorize all Americans."

Mace followed with a question about a museum glossary, asking "How many genders are there?" three times. Hartig: "So first of all, I'm happy to get back to you about the glossary." and "I'm not sure which glossary you're speaking of."

4:27 · "When was your gender revealed"

Mace cited an exhibit text:

Mace: "One of your exhibits at the American History Museum says sometimes gender isn't revealed at birth. So when is gender revealed?"

She then put the question to Hartig personally, twice:

Mace: "So when was your gender revealed to you, Dr. Hartig?"

Hartig: "So I don't really think that's relevant to the conversation."

Mace: "It is relevant. You have a display at the American History Museum talking about gender isn't always revealed at birth. So when was your gender revealed?"

As the clock expired, Hartig began another answer and was cut off; the round closed with a yield back to the chairman.

The committee's own full hearing video is on YouTube:

The House Oversight Committee's official upload of the full hearing, about two and a half hours. C-SPAN's gavel-to-gavel coverage is here.

What others said

Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), in her opening: "Calling out individual leaders [of the Smithsonian] by name, that is not policy. That is a political witch hunt." She announced the Smithsonian Integrity and Historical Independence Act, which she said "bars any federal official, including those in the White House, from trying to interfere in the independent institutions of this country and the historic interpretation of our nation's history, and it reasserts our congressional authority over this independent agency."

Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), closing the hearing: "If you erase it, we will replace it. It's that damn simple."

ARTnews (Tessa Solomon) reported that the hearing prompted "repeated comparisons to McCarthyism and the era's House Committee on Un-American Activities," and wrote that Mace's questioning "turned pointedly personal."

NPR's headline said House Republicans "excoriate" the Smithsonian official.

The subcommittee's own wrap-up release, "Hearing Wrap Up: Smithsonian National Museum of American History's Radical Agenda to Reshape the Past," quotes Chairman Burchett, Rep. Brandon Gill, and Rep. Brian Jack in its Member Highlights. It does not quote or mention Mace's exchange.

Fox News posted video of the exchange on X:

Hartig's defense

Hartig's answer to the subcommittee, verbatim from her testimony:

"Our work is governed by the Smithsonian standards of scholarship, accuracy, independence and nonpartisanship. The museum does not take sides in America's political debates. We preserve and document the evidence of American life in all of its breadth, so that the public can encounter the past and draw their own conclusions."

"When historians talk about reframing a traditional narrative, we don't mean erasing it. We mean adding the evidence, the voices, the objects that earlier tellings left out. So that more Americans can see themselves reflected in the national story."

On the White House report:

"The Smithsonian takes the concerns raised in the White House Domestic Policy Council's report seriously, and as we continue to fact-check the report, we unwaveringly attest that it does not fairly or accurately characterize the full body of work at the museum."

She also invited lawmakers to walk the museum with her.

Sources & related coverage

All quotes are verbatim from the hearing video and its caption track, or attributed to the named outlet or speaker.

"When was your gender revealed?": Mace's five minutes with the Smithsonian's American History director: image 1
"When was your gender revealed?": Mace's five minutes with the Smithsonian's American History director: image 2