In the future, I hope that the Smithsonian opens branch museums in literally every State, in a partnership with the State governments.
The idea being to have a permanent exhibition of the massive amount of “overflow” exhibits currently warehoused by the Smithsonian, particular to that State, combined with that State’s historical museum exhibits and traveling national exhibits.
That is, the Smithsonian has an enormous amount of treasure that is never displayed because of space constraints. To loan such treasures to the States as semi-permanent exhibits would strongly augment their own historical museums, and return them to public view, where they were intended.
Importantly, the Smithsonian has tried to do this in recent years, but with wildly inappropriate “theme” annexes. One such in my area was a combination of mistakes.
In a building complex that was a white elephant architectural abomination and a repeated business failure, they planned to put an African-American exhibit. In a city where blacks are less than 1% of the population.
Fortunately, it did not come to pass.
In federal standards, the expense is small, mostly shipping and handling. The State museums would be in charge of the displays, just like any other museum loan.
It would be wonderful if that could be done. As you say, they have so much that the vast amount will never be put on display unless something of that nature is worked out.
I was fortunate to have visited the Smithsonian in 1956 and again in 1965, they are both memorable visits.
It’s a shame that every American can’t make the visit at least once in their lifetime. If our treasures were spread throughout the United States it would make those treasures accessible to many more.