Park Service spokesperson Rachel Pawlitz said in a statement that all signage is under review.
“Interpretive materials that disproportionately emphasize negative aspects of U.S. history or historical figures, without acknowledging broader context or national progress, can unintentionally distort understanding rather than enrich it,” Pawlitz said.
At Harpers Ferry, staff flagged more than 30 signs, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Post, that highlight information potentially in violation of Trump’s policy. They include signs referring to racial discrimination and the hostility of White people to people who were formerly enslaved.
Park Service officials marked the submission as “out of compliance,” with staff now expected to cover up parts of signs or remove them, the person said.
“The Scourged Back” shows the scarred back of escaped slave Peter Gordon in Louisiana, 1863. (McPherson & Oliver/National Gallery of Art)
Separately, Park Service officials have ordered the removal of a photograph illustrating violence against slaves, known as “The Scourged Back,” at one national park, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. They did not identify the park in question for fear of reprisals. The photograph, taken in 1863, shows scars on the back of a man probably named Peter Gordon from wounds inflicted by his masters before he escaped slavery.
The photo was circulated widely at the time, and Northern audiences were shocked at what the photo showed, said Anne Cross, a scholar of 19th century photography at Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
“The bodies of enslaved people like Peter Gordon revealed to them realities they had never seen with their own eyes before,” Cross said, “and in many cases it altered their political opinions about the need to defeat the Confederacy and preserve the Union.”
The photo has since become famous, taking on a greater meaning in the struggle for Black liberation, Cross said. The New Yorker integrated the image into a collage on its cover commemorating George Floyd, a month after his death at the hands of police. Later that year, Viola Davis appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair showing her back, with photographer Dario Calmese acknowledging that he sought to replicate the historic photo.