Exhibitions

  • Declarations: Printing a New Nation
    Open Now
    Boston Public Library and Leventhal Center

    Declarations: Printing a New Nation

    See eight different printings of the Declaration of Independence, and take a journey that explores how the news of independence spread out from Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 when the ink was not yet dry on the founding documents of a new nation.

    April 11, 2026 – September 13, 2026

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  • Imagined Nation: America at 250
    Open Now
    Boston Athenaeum

    Imagined Nation: America at 250

    Explore how the nation has been continuously envisioned in art and print culture since its founding. View multiple early printings of the Declaration of Independence alongside George Washington's library, paintings, sculpture, prints, and more.

    February 12, 2026 – November 14, 2026

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  • 1776: Declaring Independence
    Open Now
    Massachusetts Historical Society

    1776: Declaring Independence

    In 1776, news of the Declaration of Independence echoed across the colonies and around the world. Discover how Americans drafted a path to liberty and explore the Declaration’s legacy as a national beacon of celebration and protest.

    March 6, 2026 – December 19, 2026

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  • War of Words: A Citizen's-Eye View of the Revolution
    Opens in 13 days
    Harvard Library, Houghton Library

    War of Words: A Citizen's-Eye View of the Revolution

    From the first protests against British taxation to the treaty that ended the war, War of Words brings together the posters, pamphlets, newspapers, and images that brought news of the American Revolution to those who lived through it.

    May 18, 2026 – August 7, 2026

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  • Harvard and the American Revolution
    Open Now
    Harvard Library, Harvard University Archives

    Harvard and the American Revolution

    This exhibition explores Harvard’s many roles in that struggle—as a Continental Army headquarters and as a community where bold ideas and dissent flourished—through objects, documents, and stories from the collections of the Harvard University Archives.

    March 30, 2026 – December 18, 2026

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  • Charting Independence: Revolutionary War Maps from the Harvard Map Collection
    Opens in 10 days
    Harvard Library, Harvard Map Collection

    Charting Independence: Revolutionary War Maps from the Harvard Map Collection

    The exhibition presents a selection of the nearly 2,000 revolutionary-era maps in the collection that cover a range of theaters of war and helped shape the general spatial understanding of events for those near and far.

    May 15, 2026 – November 30, 2026

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Extended Itineraries

  • Revolutionary Legacies
    Open Now
    Concord Museum

    Revolutionary Legacies

    Memory and legacy come together in this exhibition examining how we remember the founding of the nation and asks what we will build for the future. Among the historic objects and contemporary works on view, a Declaration of Independence in dialogue with a commissioned poem by Bonnie Hartley (Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican), explores the 250th.

    March 27, 2026 – September 7, 2026

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  • Pressing Importance: Salem and the Declaration of Independence
    Open Now
    Peabody Essex Museum

    Pressing Importance: Salem and the Declaration of Independence

    Pressing Importance coincides with Revolution 250 and Salem 400+ commemorations. The exhibition features three early editions of the Declaration of Independence, plus Revolutionary-era manuscripts, newspapers, pamphlets and broadsides. It offers a rare opportunity to examine the critical role that Salem played in the printing and circulation of the Declaration, primarily through the story of Ezekiel Russell, a local printer.

    May 2, 2026 – July 25, 2027

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