Articles

We are pleased to announce The Declaration of Independence and the Pursuit of Equality, a new traveling exhibition presented in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

In July 1776, the Continental Congress—the provisional government of the North American British colonies—issued the Declaration of Independence to announce the colonies' separation from Great Britain. At once a proclamation of political sovereignty, an indictment of the king of England, and an appeal for allies, the Declaration emerged from the realities of the ongoing Revolutionary War. Yet it also reached beyond its moment.

Within its preamble, which sets forth the new nation's founding principles of liberty and equality, its authors sought to articulate higher truths grounded in law and nature. Indeed, no concept in the Declaration of Independence has proven as transformative and far-reaching as the assertion that "all men are created equal." In the 250 years since those words were written, Americans and others around the world have debated and sought to define what the ideals of equality mean in practice.

The Declaration of Independence and the Pursuit of Equality is available to reserve now through the Humanities Texas traveling exhibitions program. To learn more about reserving this twelve-panel, freestanding exhibition for your venue, please contact our exhibitions coordinator at exhibitions@humanitiestexas.org.

The Declaration of Independence and the Pursuit of Equality is organized by Humanities Texas and adapted from an exhibition of the same name developed by historian Denver Brunsman, in collaboration with scholars Vanessa M. Holden, Leslie Alexander, Benjamin H. Irvin, and Eric Slaughter. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History supported the development of the exhibition, and funding support was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.