These Truths: The Declarations of Independence
104 S. 5th Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 April 10, 2026 – January 3, 2027
These Truths: The Declarations of Independence explores how Americans used and reproduced the document during the first fifty years of its history. At first it served as a pronouncement of news, later a political tool, and then transformed into a national symbol.
The creation of the Declaration was a process, not an event, and its story is more complex than assumed. The many copies of the Declaration in the exhibition offer a reminder that the Declaration’s “truths” were never static and each era reevaluated their meaning.
These Truths draws on the APS’s extensive Library and Museum holdings. Highlights of the exhibition include a first printing of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the chair Thomas Jefferson sat in while writing the Declaration of Independence, John Binns’ 1819 printing of the Declaration, and William James Stone’s 1823 printing of the Declaration.
These Truths: The Declarations of Independence will be open from April 10, 2026 to January 3, 2027 at the American Philosophical Society Museum.
![America’s 1776: Independence and its Enduring Legacies [Announcement]](https://america2026.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DeclarationBinns960_0.jpg)
