The Interior Department published the inventory as part of a court battle over its campaign to purge exhibits deemed to "disparage Americans" ahead of the July 4 celebrations.
The Trump administration has released a list of materials removed from National Park Service sites across the country, revealing the extent of a months-long campaign to strip references to civil rights, slavery, climate change, and diverse communities from public lands .
The list was made public Wednesday as part of a court filing in response to a federal judge's order requiring the administration to restore the removed materials ahead of America's 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4 . The Interior Department is appealing that ruling.
What Was Removed and Why
The inventory includes vague descriptions of dozens of exhibits, signs, and materials that were removed from parks and monuments nationwide . The removals fall largely into two categories :
"Disparages Americans past or living" — This reason was cited for materials related to:
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Civil rights and slavery, including exhibits at the President's House in Philadelphia, which told the stories of nine enslaved people who lived in George Washington's household
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The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi
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The African American Civil War Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
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A tribal land acknowledgement at the George Washington Memorial Parkway
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Materials on women's rights at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York
"Unrelated to beauty, abundance and grandeur of the national landscape" — This reason was cited for items about science and the environment, including:
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Signs about climate change at Acadia National Park in Maine
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Climate change materials at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
The removals were carried out in compliance with a March 2025 executive order directing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to purge content that casts the nation's "founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light" . The order called for removing "descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living" from all public monuments and memorials .
Court Battle and Appeals
The administration's campaign has faced legal challenges. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston issued a preliminary injunction on June 12 blocking the effort after groups representing conservationists, historians, and scientists filed a lawsuit arguing the Interior Department had engaged in a "sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science" . The injunction required the administration to submit the list of targeted items .
Meanwhile, a separate legal battle over the President's House exhibit in Philadelphia has gone the administration's way. On June 18, a three-judge panel for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Interior Department could remove and replace the slavery exhibit, reversing a lower court decision that had required restoration .
Judge Thomas Hardiman wrote that the new replacement panels "acknowledge the evil of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the story of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President's House, remind us of their essential humanity" .
"Snitch Signs" Backfire
To identify content for removal, the Interior Department placed QR code signs in parks — dubbed "snitch signs" by critics — encouraging visitors to report any signage that portrays Americans negatively or centers narratives about enslavement, land theft, or discrimination . The campaign largely backfired, according to reporting from the period .
Smithsonian Under Scrutiny
The administration's effort has extended beyond the National Park Service to museums. President Trump has repeatedly targeted the Smithsonian Institution, which runs the nation's major public museums .
In August 2025, Trump directed his attorneys to review museums, complaining that "everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been" . He has threatened to cut federal funding to museums that do not align with his administration's agenda
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