Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III Announces Retirement as Head of the Smithsonian After 38 Years of Service to the Institution

With a storied career dating back to the 1970s, Bunch leaves a remarkable legacy, most notably the founding of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Brian Wolly | Digital Editorial Director

September 8, 2026 12:18 p.m.

Share

Copy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrint

Add as preferred source

In a statement issued today, Lonnie G. Bunch III announced his retirement after seven years as the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian. “I have spent nearly half of my life working at and being part of the Smithsonian family, and what a privilege it has been,” he wrote. “There is no place like the Smithsonian—it has been one of the great loves of my life, and I am extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together. I leave with pride and sadness, gratitude and joy, and with enormous confidence in the people who will carry this remarkable institution forward.” 

Bunch was named to the role by the Smithsonian Board of Regents in 2019, having most recently served as the founding director of the Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). 

In a press release, the Institution wrote that details of the leadership transition will be announced at a later date. Bunch will serve in the role through the end of the year, according to the New York Times. The Board of Regents, composed of legislators from across Congress, in addition to civilian members, holds the responsibility of electing the next leader of the Smithsonian. Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, who also serves as the chancellor of the Smithsonian, said in the release, “The Regents, and the Smithsonian, have benefited greatly from [Secretary Bunch’s] wisdom, vision and leadership. We look forward to working with him in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition for his successor.” 

In the release, Bunch also wrote, “It is time for my next chapter, a chapter that will allow me to continue to protect the integrity of the Smithsonian and to champion the importance of a history that illuminates and celebrates the complex story of our nation.” 

Bunch’s tenure as Smithsonian Secretary was marked by the addition of two new members to the Institution’s existing roster of 19 museums: the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum and the National Museum of the American Latino. Just last month, the Smithsonian announced that the latter museum would take over the historic Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall as its permanent home.  

Bunch also oversaw a massive digital-first transformation of the Institution. In an interview with Smithsonian magazine on his first day as Secretary, Bunch said, “We have the most amazing assets—our scholarship, our collections, the history of what we’ve done. How would we reinvent that in a world without bricks and mortar?” This shift bore fruit during the Covid-19 pandemic, as Americans looked to trusted sources like the Smithsonian for information. When Bunch was growing up in New Jersey as the child of two teachers, he wrote in 2020, his parents ingrained in him the importance of education, a lesson he brought to the Institution’s pandemic initiatives: “Committing to our educational mission means reaching people where they are by increasing our digital resources, working with school districts to develop effective distance learning tools, supporting educators and families in an unfamiliar situation.” 

---

Bunch began his career at the Institution in the late 1970s, when Apollo 11 astronaut and National Air and Space Museum director Michael Collins hired him to work in the education department. Even though he had dreams of teaching at a university, Bunch realized that he could have a much greater impact with the “national classroom” of the Smithsonian. “My time there was the most life-changing thing I’ve ever experienced professionally,” he recently said.  

He left the Smithsonian for a teaching role at the University of Massachusetts and then served as the first curator at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles before returning to the National Mall in 1989 with a curatorial role at the National Museum of American History. There, he collected one of the Institution’s iconic artifacts, the Greensboro Lunch Counter, and curated the still-popular exhibition on the American presidency.  

He left the Smithsonian once again to lead the Chicago History Museum, before returning one last time as the founding director of NMAAHC, which opened in 2016. In an interview earlier this year, Bunch looked back on the arduous, yet fulfilling, time of building a museum literally from the ground up. “There's no doubt that it was the high point of my career. When I became Secretary, somebody said, ‘Oh, this is the capstone of your career.’ No, I already did that. This is OK, but no, I already did that.” 

In 2025, Bunch said in an interview with Smithsonian, “One of the reasons I agreed to become Secretary years ago was because of my profound respect for the amazing work of my colleagues.” He added that the Smithsonian “is a collection of amazing people who do work that sometimes is not understood, sometimes that is undervalued, but it’s work that as Secretary, I see as essential to a nation understanding itself.” 

Brian Wolly is the digital editor director of Smithsonian magazine.