Cultural history museums
FILE - In this March 15, 2021, file photo, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser takes a question during a coronavirus update at a news conference in Washington. Bowser announced April 26, that she is relaxing a number of COVID-19 restrictions after more than a year of virus lockdown. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Washington, DC, to loosen virus restrictions this weekend

By Ashraf Khalil Apr. 26, 2021 05:21 PM EDT

A Badger and Shield statue is seen outside the governor's Capitol office in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. On loan for more than 30 years, the U.S. Naval Academy wants the state of Wisconsin to return the statue. The Navy wants to include it in an exhibit featuring the USS Wisconsin battleship in Norfolk, Va. State historians are fighting to keep the statue in the state for another two years. (AP Photo/Todd Richmond)
It's Navy's badger statue, but Wisconsin has grown attached

By Todd Richmond Jan. 30, 2021 11:00 AM EST

The nineteenth century "Belle Epoque" hall of the fan hand-making museum is pictured in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Just like the leaves of its gilded fans, France's storied hand fan-making museum could fold up and vanish. The splendid Musee de l'Eventail in Paris, a classed historical monument, is the culture world's latest coronavirus victim. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
U.N. calls on France to help as virus imperils Fan Museum

By Thomas Adamson And Michel Euler Jan. 21, 2021 06:53 AM EST

A boy chases a bird on an empty Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. The tree-covered brick alley typically teeming with tourists is empty. Many of the shops that sell everything from traditional Mexican folk dresses to paintings of artist Frida Kahlo to sombreros are padlocked and the ones open have few, if any, customers. The strains of mariachi trios have fallen silent and the fragrance of taquitos frying has become less pungent. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Historic heart of Los Angeles on life support from COVID-19

By Brian Melley Dec. 24, 2020 12:01 AM EST

In this rendering provided by the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, an area of the new museum is seen in New Orleans. The new museum under construction in New Orleans will explore the journey of immigrant Jews and subsequent generations to the American South who brought with them a religious way of life they struggled to maintain while seeking acceptance in the home of the Bible Belt. (Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience via AP)
From matzo to gumbo: Museum explores Southern Jewish life

By Stacey Plaisance Dec. 16, 2020 11:20 AM EST

FILE - In this April 3, 2019, file photo people visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History on the National Mall at 14th Street and Constitution Ave., in Washington. In response to rising COVID-19 infection numbers, the Smithsonian Institution is indefinitely shutting down operations at all its facilities, effective Monday and affecting seven museums, plus the National Zoo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Smithsonian closing museums and zoo again amid virus spike

By Ashraf Khalil Nov. 19, 2020 04:06 PM EST

Israeli museum postpones plans to sell Islamic antiquities

By Joseph Krauss Oct. 26, 2020 11:47 AM EDT
JERUSALEM (AP) — A museum in Israel on Monday postponed its planned auction of dozens of rare Islamic antiquities after word of the sale sparked a public...

A visitor casts a shadow while looking at Plymouth Rock, the traditional point of arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower in 1620, in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. Disease introduced by traders and settlers, either by happenstance or intention, played an important role in the conquest of Native peoples. And that inconvenient fact, well known to the Natives' descendants, is contrary to the traditional narrative of the "New World." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Some see irony in virus' impact on Mayflower commemoration

By Allen G. Breed Sep. 22, 2020 09:29 AM EDT

The Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower ship that brought the Pilgrims to America 400 year ago, is docked in Plymouth, Mass., days after returning home following extensive renovations, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. A disease outbreak that wiped out large numbers of the Native inhabitants of what is now New England gave the Pilgrims a beachhead in the "New World." So, some historians find it ironic that a pandemic has put many of the 400th anniversary commemorations of the Mayflower's landing on hold. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Some see irony in virus' impact on Mayflower commemoration

By Allen G. Breed Sep. 22, 2020 01:07 AM EDT

Seattle’s MoPOP lays off 32 as museums prepare to reopen

Aug. 26, 2020 10:56 AM EDT
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state museums received some encouraging news last week, as Gov. Jay Inslee cleared a path for many to reopen amid the corovirus...

Editorial Roundup:

By The Associated Press Aug. 10, 2020 10:00 AM EDT
San Antonio Express-News. Aug. 9, 2020 A step closer to telling full Latino story A nation’s story will never be fully...

The Mayflower II sails through the waters of Fishers Island Sound off Groton, Conn., Tuesday, July 28, 2020, on the seventh day of two weeks of sea trials. The vessel, a replica of the original Mayflower that carried the Pilgrims to America in 1620, left Mystic Seaport Museum last week after a three-year, $11.2 million restoration by the workers at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. The 400th anniversary festivities scheduled for Boston and Cape Cod this spring and summer were all postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day via AP)
Mayflower II cancels scheduled stop in Rhode Island

Aug. 06, 2020 09:11 AM EDT

Visitors take in an art exhibit from inside a car as they drive through a warehouse displaying paintings and photos in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, July 24, 2020, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Galleries, cinemas, theaters and museums are closed due to the restrictive measures to avoid the spread of COVID-19, but a group of artists and a curator found a way to overcome the restrictions to share their art with the residents of Brazil’s largest city. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Galleries shut by COVID-19, Brazil has a drive-thru art show

By Tatiana Pollastri And Daniel Carvalho Jul. 24, 2020 07:29 PM EDT

FILE - In this June 6, 2016 file photo, people on a wharf watch as the Mayflower II arrives in Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Mass. After undergoing more than three years of major renovations at Connecticut's Mystic Seaport and months of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the replica of the Mayflower is is set to leave Mystic Seaport on Monday, July 20, 202 for a sea trials in New London, before sailing up the coast and arriving at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts on during the second week of August. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
Its $11M makeover complete, the Mayflower II is sailing home

By Pat Eaton-Robb Jul. 18, 2020 10:06 AM EDT

West Virginia State Museum to reopen Tuesday

Jul. 06, 2020 04:09 AM EDT
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia State Museum is set to reopen this week. The museum and its gift shop in the Culture Center at...

Baker defends virus testing; COVID-19 cases near 104,000

By Steve Leblanc And Mark Pratt Jun. 09, 2020 10:25 AM EDT
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts remains aggressive in its efforts to test for the coronavirus even as the number being conducted falls short of the state’s...

New Hampshire libraries, museums get help during pandemic

May. 26, 2020 09:44 AM EDT
The New Hampshire chapter of the National Endowment for the Humanities has distributed $400,000 to libraries, historical societies, museums and cultural...

In this Tuesday, April 21, 2020 photo, Obi Uwakwe poses with his painting in Chicago. Uwakwe is an artist/photographer and submitted his art work to the the Illinois State Museum, which is documenting what daily life is like for Illinois families during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
'Everyone has a story': How will world remember pandemic?

By Sara Burnett And Regina Garcia Cano May. 16, 2020 10:22 AM EDT