Smithsonian plans sweeping exhibit on America’s founding promises

Thomas Jefferson’s writing desk, the Star-Spangled Banner and a steelworker’s hard hat from Sept. 11, 2001 now sit at the center of the Smithsonian’s largest 250th-anniversary exhibition, a show that doubles as a test of how much independence the nation’s flagship museum complex can keep under political pressure.

The National Museum of American History opened “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness” on May 14, using 250 objects spread across 250,000 square feet on all three public floors to trace how Americans have chased the promises in the Declaration of Independence. The installation includes 76 artifacts that are either newly on display or rarely shown, among them Abigail Adams’s faux-pearl necklace, the Revolutionary War gunboat Philadelphia and a 1970 Earth Day flag. The museum’s message is clear: the founding ideals were aspirational from the start, and the country’s history has been shaped as much by exclusion and struggle as by triumph.

That interpretive approach arrives as the Smithsonian faces sustained scrutiny from the White House ahead of the July 4, 2026 semiquincentennial. In March, the institution launched “Our Shared Future: 250,” framing the anniversary around the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s pursuit of its founding promises. But on Aug. 12, 2025, the White House sent Lonnie G. Bunch III a letter saying it would conduct a “comprehensive internal review” of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions. The stated aim was to ensure alignment with President Donald Trump’s directive to celebrate “American exceptionalism,” remove “divisive or partisan narratives” and restore confidence in cultural institutions.

The letter said the review would examine public-facing content, curatorial process, exhibition planning and collection use, and it singled out planning for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration. In January, the Smithsonian sent additional documents to the White House on planned exhibits for America’s 250th birthday. Bunch later told staff the institution had transmitted more information, even as the White House said taxpayer-funded museums were not autonomous and should be subject to impartial review.

That tension has turned the Smithsonian, which operates 21 museums and the National Zoo, into a national flashpoint over who gets to frame American memory. The Smithsonian says it has been telling the country’s story for nearly 200 years and wants the semiquincentennial to invite reflection, not just celebration. The American Alliance of Museums backed continued engagement with the White House while emphasizing governance, while the Organization of American Historians warned that the effort threatened the institution’s autonomy and integrity. For Bunch, the exhibit is more than a milestone. It is a public answer to a more basic question: whether a museum can curate the nation’s founding promises without letting politics rewrite them.