Its not the first time the Smithsonian has played politics with "history". I don't know how many of you know about the Wright brothers controversy with the Smithsonian over the first heavier then air flight. This fight lasted decades, and wasn't resolved until after WWII.
The Smithsonian secretary Charles Walcott, refused to give credit to the Wright brothers, preferring to credit his predecessor Samuel Pierpont Langley. Langley had performed tests the same years as the Wrights, but was unsuccessful. That made no difference to Walcott, who maintained that Langley was first to fly. Therefore the Smithsonian claimed that Langley was the first, not the Wright brothers. Glen Curtiss flew a heavily modified version of Langley's craft in 1914 to help "legitimate" Langley and Walcott's claim. They kept this farce up until 1942 when Walcott was replaced by a new secretary Charles Abbot. Abbot then published the modifications done by Curtiss to fly Langley aircraft which discounted the ability of that craft being able to fly in 1903.
The Wright brothers had loaned their aircraft to a museum in London where it stayed until 1948. At that point the aircraft was transferred to the Smithsonian after they recanted their "history" of flight. Orville never saw his aircraft at the Smithsonian as he died shortly before it was put on display there.