Exhibits

American Sampler: Activating the Archive looks back to a period when protest reshaped the nation. Curated by MacArthur Fellow Julie Ault in collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Labadie Collection of political dissent, this eighteen-month exhibition transforms UMMA’s towering Vertical Gallery into a living record of activism.

The exhibit America at 250: Reflections on the Bicentennial explores how President Ford joined Americans across the country in commemorating the Bicentennial. The exhibit highlights some of the nationwide celebrations in 1976 and public gifts given to President Ford and asks visitors to reflect on our own Semiquincentennial commemorations.

This exhibition examines the echoes of ancient Rome that shaped the revolutionary spirit of the budding United States and how conflicting ideals of freedom and bondage—inherited from Rome—are baked into America’s origins.

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Larnell Gross, an Honors BA student in Political Communication, created Soul of America: 250 Years Through Books to share a personal perspective on American identity through the lens of University of Michigan Press books. A poster of the exhibit is featured outside the U-M Press Office on the 4th floor of Hatcher Library.

Changes over the course of the nineteenth century in how Americans voted, from voice vote to public ballot box to private voting booth, also saw changes in the material culture that surrounded voting. Ballots and ballot boxes, campaign pins and ribbons, blank lists and pre-printed party tickets, lanterns and banners–the creative forces of the American print industry filled the country’s cities and small towns with the ephemera of electioneering.

View the U.S. at 250 Community Quilt, created by U-M community members during a workshop in Winter 2026 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence!