The Threat
What’s happening to our visual history?
In 2025, a coordinated effort to erase visual truth began unfolding across federal agencies. What started as a quiet purge of military photo archives has escalated into a broader campaign to rewrite history.
This page breaks it down: what’s happening, why it matters, and what’s at stake if we don’t act.
Key Timeline of Events
Early March 2025:
Department of Defense deletes over 26,000 historic military images.
Late March 2025:
Executive order targets federally funded museums for “race-centered ideology.”
April 2025 and beyond:
Public pressure grows, but more cultural institutions begin quietly complying.
The Department of Defense Photo Purge
In March 2025, the Department of Defense began deleting tens of thousands of historical military photographs from its publicly accessible online archive. We don’t know exactly which images were deleted.
There was no complete list. No public archive. No oversight.
Because of that, the examples shown here are representative—not confirmed deletions—but aligned with the kinds of images and subjects that appear to have been targeted based on what’s missing now.
The deletions came in response to a series of executive orders aimed at eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government, including within the military. Tens of thousands of images, websites, and posts disappeared, many of them showing women in combat, LGBTQ+ service members, and soldiers of color.
The scale and focus of the removals suggest a coordinated effort—not routine maintenance. While the executive orders were public and the DOD acknowledged the removals, there was little clarity around how content was flagged, what criteria were used, or whether any oversight or historical review occurred.
This wasn’t a glitch. It was a purge.
And it happened with minimal transparency—and no meaningful accountability.
“These images weren’t just files. They were people. Stories. Proof.”
The Executive Order Targeting Museums
In late March 2025, the current administration issued a sweeping executive order pressuring federally funded museums to align with what it calls “unifying and patriotic” narratives. The order accused institutions—specifically the Smithsonian—of promoting “divisive, race-centered ideology,” and directed the Vice President to lead a review of museum content.
While the EO does not explicitly mandate the removal of specific exhibits, it applies political pressure to:
Revise displays seen as “ideologically motivated” or “anti-American”
Shift focus away from structural racism, inequality, or oppression
Promote sanitized historical narratives aligned with government-approved values
The Smithsonian is among those already under scrutiny.
This is not about objectivity. It’s about control.
If we allow government pressure to dictate which stories get told, we risk whitewashing the past—and silencing communities whose history has already been underrepresented.
A Broader Pattern of Erasure
These actions are not isolated. They’re part of a national strategy to:
Reframe American history through a sanitized lens
Remove documentation of underrepresented narratives
Control how future generations understand the past
We’ve already seen:
Books banned in schools
Public media targeted for defunding
Diversity programs gutted
Now even our visual history is being targeted—quietly, and in plain sight.
What’s Next
Our visual record is under coordinated attack. If we don't act now:
Future generations may lose access to key moments in history.
Communities already pushed to the margins could vanish from public memory.
Government accountability will continue to erode.
We fight this by defending what remains—and building a new, people-powered visual record.
