Smithsonian Taps Peabody Essex’s Lynda Roscoe Hartigan to Lead American Art Museum, a Target of Trump Administration

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan Named Director of Smithsonian American Art Museum

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, a onetime chief curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), will return to the Washington, DC, institution as its director. Hartigan is currently executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. She will begin her new role September 8. Hartigan succeeds Jane Carpenter-Rock, who took over as […]

Smithsonian Taps Peabody Essex’s Lynda Roscoe Hartigan to Lead American Art Museum, a Target of Trump Administration

The Smithsonian on Tuesday named Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, currently the executive director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, as the next Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). She begins September 8. Hartigan succeeds Jane Carpenter-Rock, who has led SAAM on an interim basis since September 2024, when Stephanie Stebich was removed as director and reassigned to an advisory role …