[applause] [applause] >> my boss, lonnie bunch, secretary of the smithsonian, cannot be heard today, but lonnie has been with this miss o'neil for over 40 years, the founding director of the national museum of african american history and culture, a great colleague, and historian, lonnie bunch. i think that we have the video. >> and admiral graduates of the office training program, i looked graduations on a special day. as secretary of the smithsonian, i am so glad for the work that you are doing. for the past several days, you have undertaken rigorous training, the military operation concepts you have learned, and the cultural heritage emergency response methods that the smithsonian staff have told you will give you the tools to make a real difference around the world. you've also volunteered and sworn an oath to serve as military officers. the selfless commitment that demonstrates the degree to which you care about this project. as the nations preeminent cultural institution for 175 years, it is the smithsonian's responsibility to protect architecture. architects, and other objects

on behalf of the smithsonian institution and its secretary, lonnie bunch, i'd like to welcome you all to the next smithsonian's national museum of natural history and this very special graduation ceremony. i'm richard curran, the smithsonian's distinguished scholar and ambassador at large. first and foremost, i like to extend the welcome to our colleagues and friends from the u.s. army, distinguished leaders, and, of course, our officer our graduates and their rightly proud and maybe families. i'd like to welcome distinguished guests from the monuments men and women foundation, including members of the board and relatives of the world. two monuments officers. this is a very special occasion. i don't usually wear this every day to work at the smithsonian. but i'd also like to welcome our guests from, bank of america, who've supported the initiative from the beginning. and finally, my smithsonian colleagues and those from sister organizations involved in cultural heritage protect like the department of state, the fbi, the international council, museums and others who in this program, as

mayor reilly and secretary lonnie bunch will engage in a fireside chat9-style conversation after which we'll open it up for questions. we can ask that you put your questions in the chat function, and and i'll relay those to secretary bunch. so with that, i'll turn it over to my colleagues, mayor joseph reilly. >> thank you, professor taylor and secretary bunch. [inaudible] the secretary of -- [inaudible] the director of the national african-american museum of national history -- [inaudible] secretary bunch is the director of the chicago -- [audio difficulty] his connection -- [inaudible] [inaudible] mr. secretary, describe -- [inaudible] >> in many ways, i am so honored to be with you because of my profound respect for the mayor, for what you're doing. in some ways the museum's created manufactured reality. you've got sacred ground, sacred space. so the opportunity to tell important stories in a space where they actually happened is very powerful. so i've always felt anything i could do that would be supportive to make -- on that war is very special. so i am in i awe of how you and you

mayor reilly and secretary lonnie bunch will engage in a fireside chat9-style conversation after which we'll open it up for questions. we can ask that you put your questions in the chat function, and and i'll relay those to secretary bunch. so with that, i'll turn it over to my colleagues, mayor joseph reilly. >> thank you, professor taylor and secretary bunch. [inaudible] the secretary of -- [inaudible] the director of the national african-american museum of national history -- [inaudible] secretary bunch is the director of the chicago -- [audio difficulty] his connection -- [inaudible] [inaudible] mr. secretary, describe -- [inaudible] >> in many ways, i am so honored to be with you because of my profound respect for the mayor, for what you're doing. in some ways the museum's created manufactured reality. you've got sacred ground, sacred space. so the opportunity to tell important stories in a space where they actually happened is very powerful. so i've always felt anything i could do that would be supportive to make -- on that war is very special. so i am in i awe of how you and you

of the smithsonian institution and its secretary, lonnie bunch, i'd like to

so, you know, lonnie bunch was on that committee, i think wendy cooper richard nylander. film and bill element. yeah. yeah, so we kind of went through this. how do we put how do we put those together and the bed is clearly maybe we move ahead one. the bed is the outstanding souls, you know, just center stage object right and this is how it had looked when mrs. lincoln had it in the prince of wales bedroom. it had this crown this canopy. it had the purple upholstery and the lace the the draperies were on sink there were violences that so this is all pretty opulent. and then how do you square that with this really rather incredible moment of gravitas and sobriety and and a pivotal moment in our history when lincoln is using this as his as his cabinet and his office and you'll see that what we begin to do is we we found a wallpaper that actually was as close as we could find what we thought was in that photograph. we determined that green would be too dark on the walls with that furniture. we worked on a rug that would channel and kind of be geometric like the one that had b

lonnie bunch was on that committee, wendy cooper, richard islander. and bill omen. we went through this, how do we pull this together? the bed is clearly, maybe we moved ahead one, but the bed is the outstanding, center stage object. this is how it had looked when mrs. lincoln had it in the prince of wales bedroom. it had this crown, this canopy. it had the purple upholstery and the lace, the drapery were there, the valences. this is all pretty opulent. then how do you square that with this really rather incredible moment of gravitas and sobriety, and a pivotal moment in our history? when lincoln is using this as his cabinet and his office. you see, what we began to do as we found a wallpaper that was actually as close as we could find to what we thought was in that photograph. we determined that green would be too dark on the walls with that furniture. we worked on a rug that would channel and be geometric like the one that had been in lincoln's office. we actually found, i think, lydia jump in and help me here, but i think we found the order for the wilton carpet