A sign with the word “vagina” was also blurred and the word “pussy” was erased from another sign. The references to the female anatomy were a rebuke of Mr. Trump’s comments about women in a 2005 recording that captured him boasting how he used his celebrity status to force himself on women, even groping their private parts.

Those words were altered because the museum has many young visitors and there was concern they might be inappropriate, Ms. Kleiman told The Post.

Rinku Sen, a president of the board of directors for the Women’s March, on Saturday called the alterations a “symbol of the degradation of democracy.”

“The National Archives are our public historians and historians are not meant to change history but to report it,” she said. “To me, it says that censoring women is a thing that people think they can do.”

The decision was criticized by historians and archivists who said changing the photo was a violation of public trust.

“Museums, archives, and stewards of our historic artifacts should absolutely never change or alter visual or written content in primary sources,” said Rhae Lynn Barnes, a professor of American Cultural History at Princeton University. “That is something totalitarian governments do.”

She added: “American history is hopeful and uplifting and triumphant, but it’s also dark and disturbing. Our job is to hold both of those truths and tensions together and properly contextualize the past so current and future generations can make up their own minds about the significance of what happened and empower themselves.”