Library of Congress Celebrates America’s 250 Years

It’s Your Story: Discover It Through the Library’s Collections, Exhibitions and Programs Throughout 2026, the Library of Congress invites all Americans to further appreciate the nation’s history by exploring the Library’s collections and expertise through exhibitions and dynamic programming. The Library will commemorate America’s 250th anniversary under the theme It’s Your Story, offering an opportunity for everyone to discover part of America’s story within the world’s largest research collections. The 225-year-old Library of Congress serves Congress and the American people with more than 181 million physical items and an expansive digital archive. In 2026, the Library will be opening several new exhibitions to connect the public with the Library’s collections, including: “The Declaration’s Promise,” opening July 3 in the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery, will explore the foundational principles of the Declaration of Independence and their impact on American history. Featured treasures will include Thomas Jefferson’s rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, among other items. The new exhibition begins with the Revolutionary moment and then uses language of the Declaration’s most famous phrases to organize the presentation of treasures from American history. Multimedia experiences will draw on the Library’s vast audiovisual collections and connect visitors with the Library’s content experts. “Alive in Many Hands: 50 Years of the American Folklife Center,” opening in September, will celebrate the American Folklife Center’s 50th anniversary with highlights from the collection. The new exhibition will explore how the center helps preserve and share living cultural traditions, practices and expressions from across the United States, including music and dance, food traditions, crafts-making, storytelling and more. “The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution,” an ongoing Library exhibition, has been extended through July 4. While King George III and George Washington never met during their lifetimes, this exhibition brings them together for the first time through their writings and collections held by the Library, the Royal Archives and the Science Museum of London. The exhibition seeks to reveal the real men behind the myths through their own words. Explore American History and Culture through Library Programs In commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary, the Library will offer a wide range of collections-inspired programming through its regular series including: Monthly Family Days on select Saturdays with activities exploring George Washington in February, maps from American history in March, and Independence Day on July 4, among other themes in U.S. history. Afternoons with the Library offer deep-dive, lifelong learning experiences on weekdays. Live! At the Library events on Thursday evenings related to America’s 250th including a History Night in April. Concerts from the Library of Congress celebrating the American songbook, including “The President’s Own” United States Marine Chamber Orchestra in concert in October. Public and scholarly symposia throughout the year, such as the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division’s “Our Common Ground,” a public symposium planned for May celebrating the ways our landscapes – from the everglades and Appalachians to the Rockies and redwood forests – have inspired Americans for 250 years. “Fashion at the Library: The Threads that Connect Us,” an initiative drawing inspiration from the Library’s collections – including the Vogue magazine and photography collections – and celebrating American history and culture through fashion and style. In-person and online events will be featured, including a Fashion Week, Fashion Ball and Movie on the Lawn. Topics will range from first ladies to zoot suits, western wear, the Kentucky Derby and space fashion. Follow the Library for future announcements about specific dates for the annual costume ball, movies on the lawn, National Book Festival, and more. Discover the Library’s Digital Resources To continue expanding the reach of the Library’s resources, digital initiatives this year will engage audiences nationally with the Library’s expertise, stories and collections to explore American history. The Library has expanded its virtual volunteer transcription program, By the People, to make digitized collections more searchable and accessible online. New campaigns will include materials for transcription across collections related to America’s history and to the nation’s founding, including colonial and founding-era women’s diaries and letters, early American sheet music, maps and nautical charts, and more to come at crowd.loc.gov. The Library, in partnership with its Affiliate Centers for the Book and PBS Books, has launched a new video series, “American Stories: A Reading Road Trip,” which uncovers literary treasures of individual states and territories – and the expansive literary heritage of the country. Each episode features items in a variety of media from the vast collections of the Library of Congress – maps, photographs, sheet music and more – that help illustrate the stories and reveal surprising connections. Watch the series at: pbs.org/show/book-view-now/collections/american-stories-a-reading-road-trip/. A new collaboration called Revolution Crossroads between the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress uses advanced technology to help uncover and share new details and insights from both institutions’ vast Revolutionary era collections of American history. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), curators and experts can examine these historical materials in ways that were never before possible, identifying patterns, names and connections that were previously beyond reach. Find more at si.edu/revolution-crossroads. Library Joins Initiatives of the Semiquincentennial Commission In cooperation with the major initiatives of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, the Library of Congress is: Working on the Commission’s Our American Story initiative to ensure long-term archiving of oral histories collected between July 2025 and July 2026. Offering technical guidance for contents of America’s Time Capsule to be installed in Philadelphia in July 2026. This guidance will also be made available to serve as a resource for other local, state and federal time capsules being planned for the 250th anniversary. As it did in 2024 and 2025, the Library will host a group of students from across the United States in July 2026 as part of America’s Field Trip, offering an in-depth, behind-the-scenes tour of the Library. The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.