Smithsonian Unveils 250 Objects for America's 250th Birthday
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will open 'In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness' on May 14, spreading 250 objects across 250,000 sq ft on all three floors to celebrate 250 years of US independence, with 76 rarely-seen items concentrated in entry-hall cases and the rest embedded in existing galleries connected by a 'ribbon' design.
- Director Anthea Hartig framed the exhibition as 'all things, all sides,' explicitly including a 'Make America great again' hat alongside the Greensboro civil rights lunch counter, playing cards crafted by Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland in Parchman prison, and wedding cake toppers placed side-by-side (a 1957 man-woman pair and a 2008 same-sex couple pair) to dramatize social progress.
- The Philadelphia, a 53ft wooden Revolutionary War gunboat built in the sweltering summer of 1776 under Benedict Arnold by a workforce of free and enslaved people, is being meticulously conserved and will be a star attraction — the only surviving US-built boat from the revolutionary period, raised from Lake Champlain in 1935 after 159 years underwater and yielding roughly 600–800 artifacts.
- Star objects span Jefferson's portable desk used to draft the Declaration of Independence, the Star-Spangled Banner, George Washington's military uniform, Duke Kahanamoku's 1928 wooden surfboard, Phil Verchota's 'Miracle on Ice' gloves, Phyllis Diller's filing cabinet of 52,000 handwritten jokes, a 1904 Coney Island electric hotdog cooker, a Nintendo console, and a steelworker's hard hat recovered from 9/11 wreckage.
- Trump has accused the Smithsonian of presenting an unduly negative version of US history and demanded a review of exhibits while seeking to recast the 250th birthday as a celebration of heroic founders and American exceptionalism; Hartig said the museum has been working with the White House and the congressional America 250 commission but is 'insulated' by 'rigorous, unassailable scholarship.'
Why it matters: The Smithsonian's deliberate inclusion of a Maga hat, same-sex wedding toppers, and civil rights artifacts — alongside canonical relics — is a direct institutional answer to Trump's pressure to recast the 250th anniversary as flag-waving celebration. With the exhibition opening May 14 and Trump having demanded a review of Smithsonian exhibits, the museum is staking its credibility on 250 objects as a defense against political rewriting of the national story.
