America at 250 at the MFA
2027-11-11 10:00 - 2028-11-23 17:00, 2027-11-12 10:00 - 2028-11-24 17:00, 2027-11-13 10:00 - 2028-11-25 17:00, 2027-11-14 10:00 - 2028-11-26 17:00, 2027-11-15 10:00 - 2028-11-27 17:00, 2027-11-16 10:00 - 2028-11-28 17:00, 2027-11-17 10:00 - 2028-11-29 17:00, 2027-11-18 10:00 - 2028-11-30 17:00 (America/New_York) and 3 more dates | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
A silver bowl. 17-foot-wide painted room divider. A charismatic silversmith considering his craft. A towering mahogany desk and bookcase. Certain paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, and works on paper from the MFA’s Art of the Americas art collection, along with the artists who created them, played a pivotal role in shaping the early history of the United States. Today, as we approach 250 years since the country’s founding, they likewise have a unique ability to recount and reflect that history while also inviting us to reconsider it.
Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of American Independence, the MFA is reimagining its 18th-century galleries on level one of the Art of the Americas Wing for the first time since they opened in 2010. The new display, which opens in June 2026, brings together works from across the Americas—integrating Native and non-native, North, South, and Central American, and Caribbean art—and explores how artists have contributed to, or in some cases resisted, ideas of nationhood and identity. Visitors can immerse themselves in a range of stories and experiences, discovering the interconnectedness of the Americas and its history, institutions, and people.
Gilbert Stuart’s unfinished portrait of George Washington (1796)—the foundational image of the nation’s first president in the public imagination—offers viewers a prescient reminder that democracy is constant work in progress. An early piece of American protest art, Paul Revere’s Sons of Liberty Bowl (1768) honors a group of Massachusetts rebels who paved the way for the Revolution. A ceramic jar (1857) by the enslaved potter and poet David Drake exemplifies literacy as an act of resistance in the decades before the Civil War. Thomas Sully drew on artistic traditions of heroism for The Passage of the Delaware (1819), which portrays George Washington in a dramatic scene of bravery. Meanwhile, a recently acquired work by Alan Michelson, a Mohawk member of Six Nations of the Grand River, offers a contemporary critique of Washington, who was known to the Mohawk Nation as “Town Destroyer.” These and the many other works on view reveal a past in dialogue with the present and propose endless possibilities for assessing history as we look ahead to the future.

AudaTours Stoneham Audio Tour: Timeless Tales of Historic Pride and Heritage
2027-11-11 12:00 - 14:00, 2027-11-12 12:00 - 14:00, 2027-11-13 12:00 - 14:00, 2027-11-14 12:00 - 14:00, 2027-11-15 12:00 - 14:00, 2027-11-16 12:00 - 14:00, 2027-11-17 12:00 - 14:00, 2027-11-18 12:00 - 14:00 and 3 more dates | Nobility Hill Historic District, Stoneham, Massachusetts, 02180, United States
In Stoneham, the shadows of colonial fires and twentieth-century neon flicker side by side. Few realize how many secrets linger behind these iconic facades.
This self-guided audio tour leads straight through the city’s untold stories. Encounter corners and chapters that even locals walk past, and let carefully crafted tales reveal what hides beneath the ordinary.
Why did a quiet night at the Bernard Cogan House erupt into controversy that changed a neighborhood? Who vanished beneath the glowing beacon of Stoneham’s eerily beautiful gas station? What explains the perfectly preserved pencil marks under the Warren Sweetser House staircase?
Move between centuries as you cross storied main streets and hidden lanes. Each step peels back another layer of rebellion, ambition, and intrigue, letting Stoneham rise up around you as never before.
Tap play and see how deep Stoneham’s shadows can stretch. The secrets are waiting.

1776: Declaring Independence
2027-11-12 09:30 - 16:00, 2027-11-13 09:30 - 16:00, 2027-11-15 09:30 - 16:00, 2027-11-16 09:30 - 16:00, 2027-11-17 09:30 - 16:00, 2027-11-18 09:30 - 16:00, 2027-11-19 09:30 - 16:00, 2027-11-20 09:30 - 16:00 | Massachusetts Historical Society, Boylston Street 1154, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States
Featuring manuscripts, artifacts, and rarely seen treasures, this exhibition captures a monumental moment in American history.
In 1776, people grappled with ideas of liberty, loyalty, and the role of government in society. Private letters, intimate diaries, and newspaper accounts reveal how the Declaration of Independence grew from draft to founding document. 1776: Declaring Independence spotlights handwritten copies of the Declaration by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as well as multiple early printings, including a rare Dunlap broadside. On and off the page, we explore how it echoed across the commonwealth and around the world, reshaping the colonists’ chances of launching a new nation. How did the Declaration change Americans’ quest for liberty, then and now? We invite visitors to trace the Declaration’s complex legacy as a national beacon for celebration and protest.
Check here for closures and more admission information: https://www.masshist.org/visit/hours-and-admission
