On July 27, 1789, the Department of Foreign Affairs (now the US Department of State) was established as the first US executive agency, with responsibilities that included administering US diplomatic missions overseas, negotiating treaties and agreements with foreign entities, and keeping the Great Seal of the United States. Even before the creation of the US Department of State, diplomacy played an important role in the creation of the United States during the Revolutionary War: it fostered the United States’ first alliance with France in 1778 and negotiated the Treaty of Paris to end the war. To this day, diplomacy has been working at the forefront of advancing US interests and supporting American prosperity and security.
Over two hundred years after the creation of the State Department, two statesmen—Ambassador Stephen Low (1927-2010) and Senator Charles McC. Mathias (1922-2010)—recognized the need to build a museum demonstrating the history, practice, and challenges of American diplomacy. Ambassador Low was a career foreign service officer with a 31-year career at the State Department. In addition to assignments in South America and Africa, Ambassador Low was appointed the US ambassador to Zambia (1976-1979), ambassador to Nigeria (1979-1981), and director of the Foreign Service Institute (1982-1987). Senator Mathias served as the US senator from Maryland from 1969 to 1987. He previously served as a member of the US House of Representatives from Maryland’s 6th district (1961-1969).
In 1999, Ambassador Low and Senator Mathias shared their vision for an American diplomacy museum and education center with then-US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Recognizing the need for a museum, Secretary Albright agreed the future museum should be located at the US Department of State. Assistant Secretary, later undersecretary, Patrick F. Kennedy identified 20,000 square feet of space in the Harry S Truman Building for the future museum.
On February 18, 2000, Ambassador Low and Senator Mathias founded the Foreign Affairs Museum Council. It was officially incorporated in the District of Columbia as a 501(c)(3) organization and private-sector partner to the US Department of State for creating a museum of American diplomacy.
In 2013, the Foreign Affairs Museum Council was renamed the Diplomacy Center Foundation. The following year, on September 3, 2014, marked the groundbreaking of a 20,000 square foot glass entrance pavilion at the 21st Street entrance to the State Department. The groundbreaking for the US Diplomacy Center (renamed the National Museum of American Diplomacy in 2019) took place with the participation of six US secretaries of State: Dr. Henry Kissinger; James A. Baker, III; Madeleine K. Albright; General Colin Powell; Hillary Rodham Clinton; and then-US Secretary of State John F. Kerry. Construction of the pavilion was completed in 2017 and has since served as the site of education programs and temporary exhibits.
The dream of Ambassador Low and Senator Mathias—and thousands of individuals in the diplomatic community—will finally be fulfilled when the National Museum of American Diplomacy (NMAD) fully opens to the public as a state of the art, interactive museum and education center. In the completed museum, the glass pavilion will host Discover Diplomacy about the practice of diplomacy today and the Founding Ambassadors Concourse, where NMAD education programs and events will take place. There will be three additional exhibitions inside the Harry S Truman Building that explore 230 years of American diplomatic history and give visitors the opportunity to practice the art of diplomacy through interactive exhibits.
The Diplomacy Center Foundation is currently in phase II of the capital campaign “Supporting American Diplomacy” to create NMAD. Phase II will raise $35 million to reconfigure the additional 20,000 square feet inside the Truman Building and complete the design, fabrication, and installation of permanent exhibits.
Learn more about the history of the Diplomacy Center Foundation.
Image: On September 3, 2014, Secretaries of State broke ground for the glass entrance pavilion. Left to Right: Hillary Rodham Clinton; Madeleine K. Albright; Henry A. Kissinger; John F. Kerry; James A. Baker, III; and Colin L. Powell.