On July 4, 2026, the Chicago History Museum will welcome visitors of all ages for a day of celebrations, present newly featured stories of freedom and community-led change in its “Facing Freedom” exhibition
CHICAGO (June 8, 2026) – The Chicago History Museum invites Chicagoans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States with a day full of festivities on Saturday, July 4, 2026. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Museum will host a range of indoor, family-friendly activities and civic engagement experiences tied to the nation’s 250th anniversary and Chicago’s long history of civic action, including the reopening of its “Facing Freedom” exhibition with refreshed content and new Chicago stories. The exhibition reopening is part of the Museum’s year-long “US at 250: Civic Action in Chicago” initiative.
As part of the day’s programming, the Museum will also host the rededication of Augustus Saint Gaudens’ Lincoln: The Man (1887)—freshly cleaned and refurbished—in a ceremony presented by the Chicago Park District and the Lincoln Park Conservancy and hosted by the Chicago History Museum. Beginning at 4:30 p.m., activities move outdoors to the Museum plaza, with a free public concert by the Americana Concert Band, under the direction of Joe Lill, at 6 p.m. The Museum café will offer hot dogs, cold sodas, and ice cream.
“As we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, we invite Chicagoans of all ages to join us at the Museum for a day filled with music, family activities, civic engagement, community connection, and reflection,” said Interim President and CEO of the Chicago History Museum Michael Anderson. “From exploring our refreshed “Facing Freedom” exhibition to enjoying festivities across the Museum grounds throughout the day, there will be something for everyone as we come together to celebrate our shared history and imagine our future.”
Anchored in the Chicago History Museum’s collection materials relating to the United States’ founding and Chicago’s civic legacies, “US at 250” centers the city as a place of participatory action and the Museum as a place for making connections between past, present, and future. As part of the day’s celebration, visitors will also experience the reopening of the Museum’s refreshed “Facing Freedom” exhibition, which invites guests to consider their own role in advancing freedom and civic participation.
Originally opened on July 4, 2010, “Facing Freedom” is a permanent exhibition on the Chicago History Museum’s first floor that highlights eight specific conflicts over freedom in U.S. history. With a middle- and high-school student audience in mind, the exhibition explores how various communities have demanded freedom and created change through civic action, protest, innovation, and advocacy.
Peter T. Alter, Gary T. Johnson Chief Historian and Director, Studs Terkel Center for Oral History, served as the curator of the reimagined “Facing Freedom” exhibition after working on the original exhibition that opened 2010. “The revised ‘Facing Freedom,’” Alter said, “puts people front and center as they seek, fight for, and make their own freedom.”
“History shows us that young people are often in the vanguard of changemaking movements that allow people to live free and more equitable lives,” said Director of Education Erica Griffin. “With middle school learners in mind, ‘Facing Freedom’ uses images, artifacts, and interactive elements to explore eight familiar and not-so-familiar stories in Chicago’s and the nation’s past and asks students to consider their own informed actions to impact the future.”
The Chicago History Museum invites the public to explore how people have worked together in the 19th and 20th centuries to form unions, promote boycotts, stage protests, demand rights, fight against conditions of enslavement and incarceration, protect land, and create community spaces. Guests who have seen the original exhibition will be treated to two brand-new stories examining the work of freedom seekers in Chicago, particularly abolitionists John and Mary Richardson Jones, and the role house music played in establishing safe spaces for Chicago’s Black, Brown, and LGBTQIA+ communities. The refreshed design includes eight updated interactive experiences and expanded content in the existing six stories, all presented in both English and Spanish.
“In redesigning the exhibition, we made improving access and accessibility for the Museum’s visitors a priority,” said Director of Curation and Exhibitions Paul Durica.
Additionally, July 4 serves as a culminating event for the Chicago History Museum’s Civic Season programming series. Operating between the bookend dates of Juneteenth, June 19, and Independence Day, July 4, Civic Season invites participants of all ages, especially youth and families, to draw inspiration from the histories presented in the Chicago History Museum’s exhibitions, including “Facing Freedom,” to help narrate a more just and equitable future. From gallery explorations, presentations, collaborative arts making, and connections to community-focused civic partners, and more, visitors are encouraged to consider their capacity for civic involvement and respond to the question: “What will your civic action chapter add to Chicago’s story?
Also coming to the Chicago History Museum in July is the third of four installations from Chicago-based artists who created artworks in response to four important documents from U.S. history in the Museum’s collection. Multi-disciplinary artist, cultural strategist and creative entrepreneur Barrett Keithley—widely known as Bkeezy—created “The People, We Are: A Living Reflection on the U.S. Constitution,” an immersive, mixed-media installation that visually and emotionally explores the impact of the U.S. Constitution. “The People, We Are” will open Monday, July 13, and remain on display in the Museum’s lobby for three months.
A preview week for “Facing Freedom” will be held from Monday, June 29, 2026, to Friday, July 3, 2026, during which members of the press are invited to tour the exhibition and hear from the curator.
For more information, please visit chicagohistory.org/facingfreedom or contact Emily Miller, Public Communications Manager, at emily.miller@chicagohistory.org or (312) 799-2161.
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