Aligning Projects with National Semiquincentennial Initiatives

About the Semiquincentennial

2026 is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a year that will commemorate The United States of America’s Semiquincentennial. As a result of comprehensive efforts to mark this event, the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission was established by Congress in 2016, stimulating a national conversation on how Americans of all ages and backgrounds and in all places can see themselves in history. The Making History at 250: The Field Guide for the Commemoration (or Guide), developed in partnership with the American Association for State and Local History and the National Endowment for the Humanities, was published in 2021 to assist organizations in placing history at the center of important conversations in their communities to allow meaningful dialogue, inform debate, and create a mutual understanding to replace rancorous partisan conflict.

Relationship to Funding

Many funders, mostly in the arts, cultural, and humanities sectors, are prioritizing supporting projects that speak to the themes, ideas, and goals found within the Guide, and those which share the stories of the diverse people of the past and present who contribute to the American story of liberty and prosperity. When possible and appropriate, it is recommended to align proposals to one of the five themes below and discuss how the proposed project relates to this national initiative. This does not have to be the focus of your grant narrative, but mentioning this alignment in questions relating to impact, reach, relevance, and sustainability would be appropriate.

The Five Semiquincentennial Themes

Unfinished Revolutions

In the United States, the fight for liberty, equality, and justice has a long and complex history. Through formal politics, grassroots organizing, boycott, protest, litigation, war, and a wide range of other mass and individual actions, people have continually challenged America to live up to our highest ideals—often drawing on ideas expressed in our founding documents. Before, during, and after the Revolution, people have fought for their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and worked tirelessly to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity. This history is not a consistent march of progress, but a complex story full of both advancements and setbacks. These stories reveal the ways the Revolution began before 1776 and reverberates through to the present.

Power of Place

Place offers a powerful lens through which we can view the past. It challenges us to think beyond modern political boundaries and to consider the full history of the space we now call the United States. A deep engagement with place enables us to reconsider significant questions about our history: from Indigenous peoples’ past and present connections with American spaces, to a community’s relationships with and use of land, waterways, and natural resources, to the profound and unequal consequences of imperial expansion and colonization across the continent. This theme encourages us to reexamine ideas about our natural and built environments and to reorient when and where we find our country’s history.

We The People

Since the nation’s founding, definitions of “the people,” the boundaries of national belonging, and the very nature of citizenship have changed. For much of our history, the United States has excluded people—women, free and enslaved African Americans, Indigenous people, immigrants, people with disabilities, the poor, and many others—from full participation and representation in the nation’s political, economic, and cultural life. Yet over time the United States has also incorporated people of different backgrounds into our society, as diverse populations have staked their claim to belonging and pressed for a more pluralistic, more equitable nation. The expansion of citizenship and belonging has never been pre- determined nor guaranteed, and changes in our population remain a subject of debate and conflict today.

American Experience

The leaders of the founding era did not have all the answers. Though their innovations of representative democracy and rights-based constitutionalism were transformative, they knew the nation was a revolutionary experiment. They expected future generations to improve upon the republic they created. The 250th anniversary offers an opportunity to reconsider the origins of our government, democratic institutions, and broader civic life, and a chance to reflect on the ways we have changed them over time. Encouraging discussion about our democracy and civic institutions can help strengthen understanding, inspire action, and reveal ways that all of us can participate in and shape the ongoing American experiment.

Doing History

To renew public engagement with history, we—scholars, curators, educators, historians, archivists, preservationists, and more— must invite our public to participate in the process of doing history. The 250th anniversary challenges our field to explain how we interpret evidence and craft narratives about the past, engaging in open conversations about what history is, the many ways it is done, and why it matters. By more transparently communicating our methods for learning about the past, we can help audiences better understand how new questions, evidence, and perspectives inform our histories, how they can better do history in their own lives, and how these histories can speak to present-day challenges. Sharing how we do history will also require us to explain silences and exclusions in our archives and collections, and to communicate how oral history, community knowledge, and the perspectives of other disciplines also inform our understanding of the past. Inviting audiences to engage with the historical method can help them see more clearly the value of inclusive narratives and become more comfortable with the ambiguous, contested, and always-evolving nature of history.

More Resources

AASLH’s main page for 250th resources

Making History at 250: The Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial 

Reframing History—Podcast series produced by Hannah Hethmon for AASLH (2022)

State Commissions for Michigan and New York (https://www.revolutionaryny250.com)