A polarized nation and record levels of inequality aren't ideal for a convergence ahead of America 250, but on the plus side of the ledger the times give us ample opportunity for reflection and revision. New York City was at the center of the Revolution and the birth of the nation, and it's playing a central role in 2026. Read on for provoking talks, lectures, tours, and museum exhibitions around the Semiquincentennial.
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, first edition.
New York remakes itself constantly so not many city institutions can say they predate the Revolution. One notable exception still going strong is The New York Society Library, NYC's oldest cultural institution, founded in 1754. During the British occupation of the city, the library was looted, but the institution rebuilt (George Washington's name can be found on borrowing ledgers from 1789). Visit its current home today on the Upper East Side for regular talks open to the public and rotating exhibitions. On view from Thursday, June 18th through the end of the year is Collective Witness: A Library For a Young Country. The show considers how a public library and a nascent democracy converged in New York City, with rarities like the Common Sense first edition pictured here.
The exhibition's keynote event is with historian and former presidential speechwriter Ted Widmer. He'll discuss his new book, The Living Declaration: A Biography of America's Founding Text, with the Times's Jamelle Bouie on Wednesday, June 24th.
Another local institution that predates the United States is Fraunces Tavern Museum. You can take advantage of open houses for Flag Day (Friday, June 12th) and Independence Day. On Monday, June 22nd, learn about rum’s creation and its impact on the American Revolution with Jordan B. Smith, author of The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity. Fraunces Tavern will also be out in Brooklyn on Saturday, August 22nd and Sunday, August 23rd for commemorations around the Battle of Brooklyn. The largest battle of the American Revolution and the first after the Declaration of Independence, its 250th anniversary is being marked with a Prospect Park reenactment and a ceremony for the Maryland 400 at the Old Stone House.
Untapped Cities celebrates NYC, particularly the city's odd corners. This summer they'll be highlighting special tours of sites connected with the American struggle, including: Friday, June 19th Battle of Brooklyn: Revolutionary War Walking Tour; Saturday, June 20th and Saturday, July 11th Battle of Kip's Bay: Revolutionary War Walking Tour and Battlegrounds of Central Park Walking Tour: From the Revolution to War of 1812; Battle of Harlem Heights: Revolutionary War Walking Tour Sunday, June 21st; and on select weekend days, NYC Spies of the American Revolution.
After Franz Xaver Habermann (1721-1796), The Triumphal Entry of Royal Troops into New York. (L'Entré Triumphale de Troupes Royales a Nouvelle Yorck).
This summer at Museum of the City of New York, exhibition The Occupied City looks at New York’s eight-year struggle under British military rule during the Revolution. Highlights include a recreated 18th-century tavern, Loyalist print shop, digital dramatizations of key events like the Battle of New York, and the walk-through experience of “Canvas Town,” the Redcoat tent city on the outskirts of town. Upcoming talks include Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War on Saturday, June 20th, and Revolution Remembered, Stories Forgotten, on Tuesday, June 23rd, for a look at how the story of the Revolution has been shaped (and simplified).
Excelsior, artist unknown.
As the city's first museum, you can expect The New York Historical to have unique angles on 250. On view now is Revolutionary Women, which highlights the often-overlooked contributions of women to the American cause. Old Masters, New Amsterdam explores how Dutch artists—Rembrandt foremost among them—were transforming painting just as their countrymen were establishing New Amsterdam. The show brings several Dutch Golden Age masterpieces to NYC for the first time; the paintings provide fresh insight into imagining the backwater Dutch colony that would become New York. Also on view as of June 18th is Democracy Matters, featuring historical objects from the museum’s collections, along with contemporary artwork in conversation with the legacy of 1776.
Upcoming talks at The New York Historical include Ken Burns on the American Revolution on Thursday, June 25th (online access still available); presentations by historian Russell Shorto, curator of Old Masters, New Amsterdam, on Friday, June 19th and Monday, June 22nd; and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on Leadership for a More Perfect Union: Lessons from America at 250 on Sunday, June 28th.
All around town you'll find additional ways of thinking about American origins. Stop by the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Wednesday, June 17th as Harvard political philosopher Danielle Allen shares her new book, Radical Duke: How One Aristocrat—and the American Revolution—Transformed Britain. She'll tell the story of Charles Lennox, the 3rd Duke of Richmond, and radical ideas that shaped two worlds. For an ecclesiastical take, Grace Church Brooklyn Heights considers America at 250: Democracy, Race and the Unfinished Moral Project on Saturday, June 20th. Looking ahead to July, join the Center for Brooklyn History on Thursday the 16th for Pulitzer Prize finalist and Columbia historian Kim Phillips-Fein and a discussion of her new book, Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight against Equality in America.
