The flagship of the celebration will be the America 250 exhibition with Ken Burns as guest curator. At roughly 7,000 sq ft, and occupying two of our five major galleries.

This exhibition will contain an extraordinary assemblage of about 250 total objects. These will include important works of American art such as Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington, on loan from Colonial Williamsburg, a rare photographic portrait of Abraham Lincoln taken in Peoria, on loan from the Gilder Lehrman Institute, other objects of historical significance, and rare documents.

At the center of the exhibition, we are working with a leading rare documents collector and expert dealer from New York, Seth Kaller, who is helping us facilitate the loans of more than 50 premium rare American documents. These range from a 1776 edition of the Declaration of Independence, a first printing of the Constitution, Emancipation Proclamation, and Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream” speech.