Washington Crossing the Delaware, Emanuel Leutze, 1851 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Special Report

America’s 250th Anniversary

To mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding on July 4, 1776, Smithsonian magazine is highlighting the people, places and events that shaped the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain

John Hancock left this trunk of documents at a Lexington tavern. Paul Revere and fellow Bostonian John Lowell recovered the trove of papers and carried it across the village green.

History

Everyone Remembers Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride. But His Forgotten Race to Secure a Trove of Documents Reveals How Government Records Helped Win the War

During the American Revolution, both the British and the patriots fought to keep sensitive papers out of enemy hands

The National Gallery of Art will lend artworks to museums across the country.

Smart News

The National Gallery of Art Embraces New Role as Lending Library, Thanks to a Big Gift That Sends Artwork to Other Museums

A $116 million donation from the family foundation of longtime trustee Mitchell P. Rales will help share the museum’s collection in honor of the 250th birthday of the U.S.

Mountains in Montana’s Makoshika State Park, where some of the Hell Creek Formation lies.

Science

The Hell Creek Formation Is North America’s Legendary Boneyard. See the Top Five Discoveries Found in the Iconic Fossil Bed

From preserved plants to T. rex, the material found in these Late Cretaceous rocks has resulted in countless breakthroughs for paleontologists

Across the Continent: “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way” (1868) by Frances Flora Bond Palmer is one of the artworks in the National Gallery of Art's new exhibition.

Smart News

The National Gallery of Art Holds an Artistic Mirror Up to the United States for Its Big 250th Birthday

In celebration of the semiquincentennial this year, “Dear America” looks at the country’s land, communities and revolutionary history through artworks dating back to the late 18th century

An 1818 John Trumbull painting of the presentation of the draft Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress

History

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence Was Breaking News. Here’s How the Founding Document Reached the American Public

A new book by historian Emily Sneff records the journeys of the Declaration’s first printed copies, tracking their reception in the Thirteen Colonies and overseas

The first episode of "Lucy Worsley Investigates: The American Revolution" premieres on April 7, with the second installment following on April 14. Note: The upside-down Union Jack as seen here was in the original publicity photograph provided by PBS.

History

In a New Documentary, One of Britain’s Most Famous Historians Reframes the American Revolution as a ‘Messy Divorce’

Lucy Worsley’s PBS series highlights the emotional fallout of the conflict, with a focus on the British perspective

More From the Archives

An illustration of British General John Burgoyne addressing a group of his Native allies

History

Native Nations Fought in the American Revolution to Protect Their Ancestral Lands. After the War, Settlers Seized Their Territory Anyway

The conflict divided the six tribes of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, most of whom decided to join the British. The former allies clashed at the Battle of Oriskany in New York in 1777

April 3, 2026

Founders and Unsung Heroes

A depiction of George Washington and his mother, Mary Ball Washington, attending a ball celebrating the surrender at Yorktown in 1781

History

The Reinvention of George Washington's Mother, From Paragon of Virtue to Greedy Shrew to Widow Striving for Independence

A new biography examines how 19th-century Americans remembered Mary Ball Washington, who raised the future president largely on her own after her husband’s death in 1743

William E. Leuchtenburg's new book spotlights (from left to right) George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams.

History

What the American Revolution Taught the United States' First Presidents

A new book by historian William E. Leuchtenburg examines how the first six commanders in chief embodied the revolutionary spirit and set precedents that shaped their successors' tenures

Sybil Ludington has been called the "female Paul Revere."

History

Did the Midnight Ride of Sibyl Ludington Ever Happen?

What to make of the alluring legend of the New York teen who warned that the Redcoats were coming

Detail of a copy of the Declaration printed by Goddard

History

Mary Katharine Goddard, the Woman Whose Name Appears on the Declaration of Independence

Likely the United States' first woman employee, this newspaper publisher was a key figure in promoting the ideas that fomented the Revolution

Catalysts for Revolution

This engraving by Paul Revere offered a specific argument about what happened that day in Boston.

History

A Fresh Look at the Boston Massacre, 250 Years After the Event That Jumpstarted the Revolution

The five deaths may have shook the colonies, but a new book examines the personal relationships forever changed by them too

The Bostonians’ “preferred outcome” was for the tea to be “peacefully sent back to London,” says historian Benjamin L. Carp. “It’s only when they find out … the governor is not going to let [that happen] that they say, ‘Well, we have no choice [but] to destroy [the tea].”

History

The Many Myths of the Boston Tea Party

Contrary to popular belief, the 1773 protest opposed a tax break, not a tax hike. And it didn't immediately unify the colonies against the British

History

At a Bold Meeting 250 Years Ago, the Continental Congress Set America in Motion

While far less famous than the coalition that met in 1775, this group of founders found agreement in their disagreements and laid the groundwork for a revolution

“Here … we claim the first blow was struck in the war of independence,” wrote Salem historian Charles Moses Endicott in his account of Leslie's Retreat.

History

Was This Little-Known Standoff Between British Soldiers and Colonists the Real Start of the American Revolution?

On February 26, 1775, residents of Salem, Massachusetts, banded together to force the British to withdraw from their town during an oft-overlooked encounter known as Leslie's Retreat

The Revolutionary War

A romanticized 1975 depiction of Daniel Morgan's riflemen at the Battle of Bemis Heights in Saratoga, New York, on October 7, 1777

History

How a Relentless, 484-Mile March From Virginia to Massachusetts Fueled the Legend of the Dashing Frontier Rifleman

In the early months of the American Revolution, Daniel Morgan and his soldiers raced north to join the Continental Army during the so-called Beeline March

A replica of Benjamin West's <em>Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain in the Year 1783 </em>appears in the background of this 1812 portrait of English judge John Eardley Wilmot.

History

Meet the Defiant Loyalists Who Paid Dearly for Choosing the Wrong Side in the American Revolution

American colonists who aligned with the British lost their lands, their reputations and sometimes even their lives

This John Trumbull painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill presents a romanticized version of Joseph Warren's death.

History

This Forgotten Founding Father Hoped to 'Die Up to My Knees in Blood' in the Fight for American Independence. He Got His Wish

Joseph Warren was a key leader of the American Revolution, mobilizing troops and managing a circle of spies. But he's mainly remembered for his death at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775

This painting by Louis-Nicolas Van Blarenberghe, court painter of battles to France’s King Louis XVI, depicts the 1781 formal surrender of the British army at Yorktown, Virginia. The original is at the Palace of Versailles. This secondary version was created in 1786 for French General Comte de Rochambeau, the commander of the French forces at Yorktown

At the Smithsonian

The American Revolution Was Just One Battlefront in a Huge World War

A new Smithsonian exhibition examines the global context that bolstered the colonists’ fight for independence