As we approach the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, explore a weeklong series covering key moments in the country's history.
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June 29, 2026
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As we approach the Fourth of July and the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, Penn Today presents a weeklong series of stories, photos, and videos about key moments in our history, including the early American period, the Declaration of Independence, and Penn and Benjamin Franklin in the Revolutionary era.
We begin with a look at a new exhibition at the Arthur Ross Gallery this summer, examining how visual culture shaped perceptions of Philadelphia and its citizens around the time of the nation’s founding. “I would like visitors to ask themselves, how does our distance from Old Philadelphia change how we imagine it?” says curator Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw.
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In a spring course, Penn students examined revolutions of many kinds—political upheavals, scientific revolutions, and other transformative moments in world history—through historical texts. Poring over items from collections in Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center, they engaged with concepts of conflict, change, and discovery. “There’s something really special about attending a university that has access to these really rare books,” recent graduate Izzy Welsh says.
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A timeline and exhibit in the Kislak Center highlights the revolutionary age that fomented a series of 18th century constitutions. America’s independence from Great Britain in 1776 led to the United States Constitution in 1787; France followed in 1791, and Haiti’s constitution was established in 1801 following 10 years of rebellion by enslaved Africans under French colonial rule.
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Why do “entrées” refer to different courses on different continents, and what happened to the word “hornswoggle”? Penn Today spoke with linguist Gareth Roberts about some of the ways that accents have emerged and word meanings have shifted since the country’s founding.
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“An Ode to the Fourth of July, 1788,” available in the Penn Archives, was written by Declaration of Independence signer and 1757 Penn graduate Francis Hopkinson. The piece was first distributed during Philadelphia’s Grand Federal Procession, a Fourth of July parade that commemorated Pennsylvania’s ratification of the Constitution.
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The original structure of Pennsylvania Hospital's Pine Building is a living symbol of innovation. Founded in 1751, the Hospital was home to early mental health and maternity care, among other firsts. At the time of its founding, the mere idea of having a designated place to take care of people in the colonies was groundbreaking.
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