Founding Memories : America at 250

In “Founding Memories: America at 250,” we use maps, textbooks, posters, and objects, from the 1770s to the 1970s—all taken from the rich collections of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education—to reflect on the different and changing meanings that the Revolution has had for Americans. We explore how municipalities, political figures, educational institutions, museums, libraries, corporations, artists, scholars, activists, and civic-minded individuals, among others, have used large commemorative events like centennials and bicentennials for their own purposes: to increase morale and patriotic sentiment, to raise money, to revise education curricula, to showcase “progress,” to bring communities together in celebration, and to challenge the status quo, to name but a few.