Museum of American Exceptionalism
← All wings

1620 to 2024

Every exhibit in the museum, in the order it happened.

  1. The Mayflower Compact, 1620, as imagined by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris: the men gather around a sea chest in the ship's cabin to sign.
    1620LibertyOpen nowThe Mayflower CompactBefore they set foot ashore, the Pilgrims agreed to govern themselves by laws they would make together.41signers
  2. The Battle of Lexington, 19 April 1775: Parker’s militia return fire on the Green as the regulars advance (William Barnes Wollen, 1910).
    1775LibertyOpen nowThe Shot Heard Round the WorldFarmers turned out in the night, fired back at the North Bridge, and chased the King’s regulars 18 miles back to Charlestown.~4,000militiamen
  3. Declaration of Independence (John Trumbull, 1818–19)
    1776LibertyOpen nowThe DeclarationFifty-six men signed their names to treason against the Crown and pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.56signers
  4. Washington Crossing the Delaware (Emanuel Leutze, 1851)
    1776LibertyOpen nowCrossing the DelawareChristmas night, ice in the river. Washington crossed it in the dark and took Trenton by morning.2,400men
  5. Surrender of General Burgoyne (John Trumbull, 1821), in the Capitol Rotunda. Gates declines Burgoyne’s sword and invites him into his tent; Daniel Morgan stands in white at the head of the American officers.
    1777LibertyOpen nowSaratogaThe Park Service calls it the first surrender of a British army in history. France saw it and came into the war.~6,000troops surrendered
  6. The March to Valley Forge, December 19, 1777 (William B. T. Trego, 1883): Washington watches his army march into winter quarters.
    1778GritOpen nowValley ForgeWashington’s army held together through a winter of hunger and disease, learned Steuben’s drill and marched out a professional army.6months
  7. Bonhomme Richard, center, and HMS Serapis locked together and burning under the moon off Flamborough Head, painted by Thomas Mitchell in 1780.
    1779ValorOpen nowI Have Not Yet Begun to FightHis ship sinking under him, John Paul Jones lashed it to a British frigate and took her.3½hours
  8. Surrender of Lord Cornwallis (John Trumbull, 1820)
    1781LibertyOpen nowYorktownCornwallis’s army marched out between the allied lines and laid down its arms. A new nation had beaten the British Empire.~8,000surrendered
  9. Washington stands at the head of the Assembly Room as the delegates sign the Constitution, 17 September 1787 (Howard Chandler Christy, 1940).
    1787LibertyOpen nowThe ConstitutionThirty-nine delegates signed the plan for a government of the people. It is the oldest written national constitution still in force.39signers
  10. The flag flies over Jackson Square in New Orleans, the old Place d’Armes, with the Cabildo at left and St. Louis Cathedral at center. Here the Stars and Stripes went up over Louisiana on 20 December 1803.
    1803FrontierOpen nowThe Louisiana PurchaseJefferson’s envoys doubled the size of the United States in a single treaty, for under three cents an acre.828,000square miles
  11. Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia (Charles M. Russell, 1905)
    1804FrontierOpen nowLewis & ClarkAcross a continent no American had crossed, to the Pacific, and back again.8,000miles
  12. Constitution’s broadsides shatter HMS Guerriere, 19 August 1812 (Thomas Chambers, about 1845).
    1812ValorOpen nowOld IronsidesUSS Constitution left HMS Guerriere without a mast standing in under 30 minutes. British cannonballs bounced off her oak sides.30minutes
  13. A View of the Bombardment of Fort McHenry: British bomb ships shell the fort on the morning of 13 September 1814 (John Bower, aquatint, c. 1816).
    1814LibertyOpen nowFort McHenryThe Royal Navy shelled the fort through a day and a night. At dawn the flag was still there, and Francis Scott Key wrote it down.25hours of bombardment
  14. Andrew Jackson rides among his gunners and riflemen as the British assault breaks on 8 January 1815 (Dennis Malone Carter, 1856).
    1815ValorOpen nowThe Battle of New OrleansJackson’s line of riflemen, pirates and militia shattered a veteran British army in half an hour.2,000+British casualties
  15. The fleet gathers in New York Harbor for the Grand Canal Celebration, 4 November 1825, painted by Anthony Imbert
    1825BuildersOpen nowThe Erie CanalDug largely by hand across upstate New York, it opened the West and made New York City the nation’s port.363miles
  16. The Fall of the Alamo: David Crockett swings his rifle as the Mexican assault breaks over the walls on 6 March 1836 (Robert Jenkins Onderdonk, c. 1903).
    1836FrontierOpen nowRemember the AlamoAbout 200 defenders held an old mission against an army of thousands. Six weeks later, their cry won Texas at San Jacinto.13days
  17. The General Operating Department of the Western Union Telegraph Building in New York, 1875, three decades after the first message.
    1844InventionOpen nowWhat Hath God WroughtSamuel Morse tapped four words from Washington to Baltimore, and from that morning on the news no longer had to wait for a horse or a train.40miles, instantly
  18. Pillow’s column storms Chapultepec on 13 September 1847, scaling ladders against the castle walls (Carl Nebel, 1851).
    1847ValorOpen nowTo the Halls of MontezumaWinfield Scott landed at Veracruz, cut loose from his supply line and marched on an enemy capital, winning every battle.6months
  19. A modern rider retraces the Pony Express National Historic Trail across the Wyoming sagebrush under a storm sky, September 2010.
    1860GritOpen nowThe Pony ExpressYoung riders galloped mail from Missouri to California in ten days, through blizzards, deserts and hostile country.1,966miles in 10 days
  20. Hattie, Lizzie, Lutie and Ruth Chrisman in front of Lizzie's sod house in Custer County, Nebraska, in 1886. All four sisters went on to file homesteads.
    1862FrontierOpen nowThe Homestead ActAny citizen willing to live on 160 acres and farm it for five years could own it. Homesteaders claimed 270 million acres, a tenth of the country.270Macres settled
  21. The 20th Maine charges down Little Round Top with fixed bayonets, 2 July 1863, in H. Charles McBarron Jr.'s National Guard Heritage painting.
    1863ValorOpen nowLittle Round TopAt the far end of the Union line at Gettysburg, out of ammunition, the 20th Maine fixed bayonets and charged downhill.386men of the 20th Maine
  22. Lincoln speaks at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, 19 November 1863, as imagined in a Sherwood Lithograph Co. print of about 1905.
    1863LibertyOpen nowA New Birth of FreedomLincoln spoke for about two minutes at Gettysburg and defined what the nation was for.272words
  23. Denali, 20,310 feet, over Wonder Lake before sunrise, Denali National Park and Preserve, July 2018.
    1867FrontierOpen nowSeward’s BargainMocked as Seward’s Folly, the purchase of Alaska added 586,000 square miles of gold, oil and strategic coast.1.9¢an acre
  24. East and West Shaking Hands at Laying Last Rail, Promontory Summit, May 10, 1869
    1869BuildersOpen nowThe Golden SpikePromontory Summit, Utah. A trip that took months by wagon now took about a week.7days coast to coast
  25. The Carnegie blast furnaces at Braddock, home of the Edgar Thomson Works, about 1905.
    1875BuildersOpen nowCarnegie SteelAndrew Carnegie’s mills cut steel rails from $70 a ton to $17 and helped put America ahead of Britain as the world’s steelmaker.#1in world steel
  26. Bell’s laboratory notebook for 10 March 1876, recording the first sentence ever sent by telephone: “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you.”
    1876InventionOpen nowMr. Watson, Come HereAlexander Graham Bell spoke the first sentence ever heard over a wire in Boston. Within his lifetime, America had more than ten million telephones.1876first call
  27. The dynamo room at Pearl Street: Jumbo dynamos coupled straight to their steam engines, from an 1880s engraving
    1882InventionOpen nowEdison Lights New YorkEdison made a bulb that lasted, then built the power station, wires and meters to light a city with it.400lamps lit the first night
  28. Bird’s-eye view of the opening-night fireworks over the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, 24 May 1883.
    1883BuildersOpen nowThe Brooklyn BridgeThe longest suspension bridge on earth, the first hung on steel wire, slung from two granite towers 276 feet high.1,595foot main span
  29. Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt rides at the head of the charge up Kettle Hill, 1 July 1898, in Frederic Remington’s Charge of the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill
    1898ValorOpen nowSan Juan HillRoosevelt’s Rough Riders and the regulars charged up the heights outside Santiago under fire and took them.1day
  30. The Heywood No. 2 gusher blows above the forest of derricks on Spindletop Hill, 1901
    1901BuildersOpen nowSpindletopA Texas gusher blew 150 feet into the air, and the oil age began.100,000barrels a day
  31. First flight of the Wright Flyer, Kitty Hawk, December 17, 1903
    1903InventionOpen nowKitty HawkTwo bicycle makers from Dayton flew the first powered airplane. Every flight since started here.12seconds
  32. Jim Thorpe spreads his arms as he crosses the finish line, 1912
    1912GritOpen nowThe Greatest Athlete in the WorldAt Stockholm, Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and the decathlon. The King of Sweden called him the greatest athlete in the world.2Olympic golds
  33. Workers on Ford’s first moving assembly line build flywheel magnetos at Highland Park, 1913.
    1913BuildersOpen nowThe Moving Assembly LineHenry Ford put the Model T on a moving line and cut the work to build a chassis from twelve and a half hours to an hour and a half.93minutes per chassis
  34. Culebra Cut with Gold Hill, Panama Canal construction, c. 1912
    1914BuildersOpen nowThe Panama CanalWhere France failed, America cut through the Continental Divide and joined two oceans.10years to build
  35. Sgt. Alvin C. York at the hill in the Argonne where he captured 132 German prisoners, 1919
    1918ValorOpen nowSergeant YorkA Tennessee marksman in the Argonne Forest silenced a German machine-gun nest and marched 132 prisoners back.132prisoners
  36. How Twenty Marines Took Bouresches (Belleau Wood, June 1918), painting, 1919
    1918ValorOpen nowBelleau WoodTold to fall back, a Marine captain answered “Retreat? Hell, we just got here.” Then the Marines took the wood.26days
  37. A dog team on the Iditarod National Historic Trail between Kaltag and Unalakleet, the stretch Jackscrew and Victor Anagick ran with the serum in 1925. Photographed in March 2016.
    1925GritOpen nowThe Serum Run to NomeTwenty mushers and about 150 dogs carried diphtheria serum 674 miles through an Alaskan blizzard in 127½ hours.674miles
  38. A crowd surrounds the Spirit of St. Louis at Roosevelt Field, Long Island, before Lindbergh's takeoff for Paris, 20 May 1927.
    1927Sky & SpaceOpen nowThe Spirit of St. LouisA 25-year-old airmail pilot flew alone from New York to Paris without stopping and became the most famous man alive.33½hours alone
  39. Icarus, Empire State Building (Lewis Hine, 1930)
    1931BuildersOpen nowEmpire State Building102 stories in 410 days. The tallest building on earth for nearly forty years.410days
  40. Boulder (Hoover) Dam column blocks rising in Black Canyon, telephoto from cableway control tower, c. 1934
    1936BuildersOpen nowHoover DamPoured in the Nevada desert in the middle of the Depression and finished two years ahead of schedule.726feet high
  41. Jesse Owens in flight in the long jump at the Olympic Stadium, Berlin, August 1936
    1936GritOpen nowFour Golds in BerlinIn Hitler’s Olympic stadium, a sharecropper’s son from Alabama won the 100, the 200, the long jump and the relay.4gold medals
  42. The Golden Gate Bridge lit up at night, seen from the Marin side, May 2012.
    1937BuildersOpen nowThe Golden Gate BridgeThey said it couldn’t be built across the Golden Gate. It was the longest suspension span in the world for 27 years.4,200feet of span
  43. Liberty ship slides down the ways at the Kaiser shipyard, Vancouver, Washington
    1942Arsenal of DemocracyOpen nowThe Four-Day Liberty ShipThe SS Robert E. Peary went from keel-laying to launch in four days and fifteen hours.4½days, keel to launch
  44. Dauntless dive bombers of Scouting Squadron 8 from USS Hornet close on the burning Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma, 6 June 1942 (80-G-17054).
    1942ValorOpen nowMidwaySix months after Pearl Harbor, American dive bombers set three Japanese carriers burning in a few minutes. Before dark they got the fourth.4carriers sunk
  45. A B-25B clears the bow of USS Hornet at the start of the Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942, as sailors watch from the island (80-G-41196).
    1942ValorOpen nowThirty Seconds Over TokyoFour months after Pearl Harbor, 80 volunteers flew Army bombers off a Navy carrier and struck Japan.16B-25 bombers
  46. B-24E Liberator assembly lines at Ford's Willow Run plant, 1942
    1944Arsenal of DemocracyOpen nowWillow RunFord’s bomber plant outside Detroit, turning out a four-engine heavy bomber every hour at its peak.1B-24 per hour
  47. Rangers' command post atop Pointe du Hoc with the U.S. flag spread to stop friendly fire, June 1944
    1944ValorOpen nowThe Boys of Pointe du Hoc225 Rangers climbed a sheer cliff under fire and destroyed the guns aimed at the D-Day beaches.100ft of cliff
  48. 101st Airborne troopers move out of Bastogne after the ten-day siege, 1944
    1944ValorOpen nowBastogneSurrounded and told to surrender, the 101st Airborne’s acting commander sent back one word.Nuts!the reply
  49. Wounded men of the 16th Infantry Regiment wait at the foot of the chalk cliffs on Omaha Beach for evacuation to a field hospital, 6 June 1944.
    1944Arsenal of DemocracyOpen nowPenicillin for D-DayBritain discovered penicillin but made it by the spoonful. Peoria scientists and 21 American companies had 2.3 million doses ready for D-Day.2.3Mdoses by D-Day
  50. Marines raise the larger second flag as the first comes down atop Mount Suribachi, 23 February 1945
    1945ValorOpen nowIwo JimaThirty-six days on eight square miles of volcanic rock. More Medals of Honor than any other battle of the war.27Medals of Honor
  51. Jack Aeby's color photograph of the Trinity fireball rising over the Jornada del Muerto, 16 July 1945.
    1945Arsenal of DemocracyOpen nowTrinity130,000 Americans built secret cities, the first reactor and the weapon that ended the Second World War.3years, start to finish
  52. Bell X-1 #46-062 in flight, c. 1947
    1947Sky & SpaceOpen nowMach 1Chuck Yeager, two broken ribs and the Bell X-1. The sound barrier broke over the Mojave.1.06Mach
  53. The first point-contact transistor (Bell Labs, 1947), on display
    1947InventionOpen nowThe TransistorBell Labs, December 1947. The switch inside every chip, phone and computer on earth.3inventors
  54. Air Force C-47s in the unloading line at Tempelhof. In the first weeks of the airlift these small twin-engine transports carried everything from engine crates to milk bottles.
    1948Arsenal of DemocracyOpen nowThe Berlin AirliftStalin cut off West Berlin by land. American and British crews flew in its food and coal for almost eleven months until he gave up.2.3Mtons flown in
  55. A freighter comes alongside in the harbor at Marseille. Almost destroyed in the war, the port was rebuilt with Marshall Plan aid and was busier than ever.
    1948Arsenal of DemocracyOpen nowThe Marshall PlanAmerica rebuilt the nations it had just fought for, and the ones it had fought against.$13.3Bto rebuild Europe
  56. 1st Marine Division column breaks out from the Chosin Reservoir, December 1950
    1950ValorOpen nowChosin ReservoirSurrounded by 120,000 Chinese troops at twenty-five below, the Marines attacked in a new direction: out, all the way to the sea.17days
  57. Marines climb wooden scaling ladders over the seawall from their landing craft at Inchon, 15 September 1950.
    1950ValorOpen nowInchonMacArthur landed behind enemy lines on a 31-foot tide, and Marines climbed the seawall on ladders to turn the Korean War.12days from the seawall to Seoul
  58. Rows of iron lungs breathe for polio patients in a hospital ward, about 1953.
    1955InventionOpen nowThe Polio VaccineJonas Salk’s vaccine was tested on nearly two million schoolchildren, declared safe and effective, and never patented.1.8Mchildren in the trial
  59. Interstate 70 rides its viaduct along the Colorado River through Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, the final stretch of I-70, opened in 1992. Aerial photograph, 2016.
    1956BuildersOpen nowThe Interstate HighwaysEisenhower’s 41,000 miles of four-lane freeway tied the continent together and now carry a quarter of all American driving.41,000miles
  60. Nautilus underway at sea in November 1955, her first year on nuclear power.
    1958Arsenal of DemocracyOpen nowNautilus 90 NorthThe world’s first nuclear-powered ship sailed 1,830 miles beneath the Arctic ice and became the first ship ever to reach the North Pole.90°Nunder the ice
  61. An Intel Core i5-11400 processor die from 2021: a whole computer processor on one sliver of silicon
    1958InventionOpen nowThe Integrated CircuitJack Kilby put a whole circuit on one sliver of germanium, and Robert Noyce made it in silicon. Every computer since runs on it.208Btransistors on one chip
  62. John Glenn climbs into Friendship 7 during the final countdown, 20 February 1962 (KSC-JohnGlenn-0006)
    1962Sky & SpaceOpen nowGodspeed, John GlennJohn Glenn circled the Earth three times in under five hours and put America in the space race for good.3orbits
  63. Mount Everest from the Khumbu in Nepal, the side the 1963 team climbed, with a plume of snow streaming off the summit.
    1963GritOpen nowAmericans on EverestFive Americans and Sherpa Nawang Gombu reached the top of the world, and two of the Americans made the first traverse of Everest.29,032feet
  64. SR-71 Blackbird over the Sierra Nevada
    1964Sky & SpaceOpen nowSR-71 BlackbirdDesigned with slide rules. Still the fastest crewed air-breathing jet ever flown.3.3Mach
  65. Maj. Bruce Crandall’s UH-1D Huey climbs away after landing infantrymen of the 1st Cavalry Division in the Ia Drang Valley, November 1965.
    1965ValorOpen nowWe Were SoldiersDropped by helicopter into a valley held by thousands of North Vietnamese, Hal Moore’s cavalrymen held on for three days.450troopers held the landing zone
  66. A combine harvests wheat on the Palouse, the rolling Washington and Idaho country where USDA breeder Orville Vogel bred America’s first semi-dwarf wheats.
    1968InventionOpen nowThe Green RevolutionNorman Borlaug, an Iowa farm boy, bred the wheat that nearly doubled harvests in India and Pakistan.1Blives
  67. Earthrise: the Earth rises over the lunar horizon on Apollo 8’s fourth orbit, Christmas Eve 1968, in Bill Anders’s first color frame (AS08-14-2383)
    1968Sky & SpaceOpen nowEarthriseThree Americans left Earth’s orbit for the first time, circled the Moon on Christmas Eve, and read Genesis to the world.1sthumans to orbit the Moon
  68. Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, Apollo 11, July 20, 1969 (AS11-40-5903)
    1969Sky & SpaceOpen nowApollo 11Eight years after a president said we would, two Americans walked on the Moon.240Kmiles
  69. BBN Interface Message Processor (IMP), the first ARPANET router
    1969InventionOpen nowARPANETUCLA tried to send “LOGIN” to SRI in Menlo Park. Two letters got through. That was the start of the internet.“LO”first message
  70. Odyssey splashes down in the South Pacific as its three main parachutes collapse, 17 April 1970 (S70-35644)
    1970Sky & SpaceOpen nowHouston, We’ve Had a ProblemAn oxygen tank blew more than 200,000 miles from Earth. Mission Control and the crew worked out the way home.87hours to get home
  71. GPS Block IIR-M satellite in orbit (artist's impression)
    1978InventionOpen nowGPSBuilt by the Pentagon to guide ships, planes and bombs, then given to the whole world for free.24satellites
  72. USA vs. Soviet Union, Lake Placid, February 22, 1980 (Mike Ramsey #5 with the puck)
    1980GritOpen nowMiracle on IceA team of college and amateur players beat the Soviet machine at Lake Placid.4–3final score
  73. Columbia rises from Pad 39A just after 7 a.m. on 12 April 1981, its external tank still painted white, the first time a crew rode a spacecraft on its maiden launch (KSC-81PC-0382)
    1981Sky & SpaceOpen nowColumbiaTwo astronauts flew a brand-new winged spacecraft into orbit on its first flight and landed it like an airplane.1streusable spaceship
  74. President Reagan speaks to the crowd at the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, 12 June 1987. The Wall runs behind the stage
    1989LibertyOpen nowTear Down This WallReagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and dared Moscow to open it. Two and a half years later the Wall came down.28years the Wall stood
  75. A Navy F-14A Tomcat of Fighter Squadron 114 flies over a Kuwaiti oil well set ablaze by Iraqi troops, 1991.
    1991ValorOpen nowThe 100-Hour WarThe ground war to free Kuwait ended in 100 hours. Iraq’s army, then billed as the world’s fourth-largest, was routed.100hours
  76. Kathryn Thornton lifts COSTAR, the corrective optics that gave Hubble’s instruments their sharp focus, while Tom Akers works below in Endeavour’s payload bay on the fourth spacewalk, 8 December 1993 (STS061-47-014).
    1993Sky & SpaceOpen nowFixing HubbleThe telescope went up flawed. Astronauts caught it in orbit, gave it new eyes, and it showed us the universe.5spacewalks
  77. The Wall of Names at the Flight 93 National Memorial, with the Ceremonial Gate looking out toward the crash site
    2001Still BuildingOpen nowFlight 93They learned what the hijackers had done with the other planes, took a vote, and fought back over Pennsylvania.40passengers and crew
  78. Green Berets of Task Force Dagger ride with General Dostum’s horsemen in the Darya Suf valley, northern Afghanistan, autumn 2001
    2001Still BuildingOpen nowThe Horse SoldiersWeeks after 9/11, twelve Green Berets rode with Afghan cavalry, called in B-52s and helped topple the Taliban.12Green Berets
  79. Smoke rises over Fallujah after an air strike on an insurgent stronghold, as Marines of 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, search the city, 10 November 2004.
    2004Still BuildingOpen nowFallujahMarines and soldiers cleared a fortified city house by house, the hardest urban battle since Hue.9days to break the city’s defenses
  80. Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone at Macworld, Moscone West, San Francisco, 9 January 2007
    2007Still BuildingOpen nowThe iPhoneSteve Jobs took one device out of his pocket and put the internet in everyone else’s.3BiPhones shipped
  81. The NY Waterway ferry Thomas Jefferson, Capt. Vincent Lombardi, pulls alongside Flight 1549 as passengers wait on the wings, 15 January 2009
    2009Still BuildingOpen nowMiracle on the HudsonGeese took both engines at 2,800 feet over New York. Sully put the airliner down on the Hudson and every soul walked away.155aboard, all saved
  82. President Obama, Vice President Biden and the national security team receive an update on the mission in the White House Situation Room, 1 May 2011
    2011Still BuildingOpen nowThe Bin Laden RaidNearly ten years after 9/11, Navy SEALs flew into Pakistan in the dark and got him.3,520days after 9/11
  83. A drilling rig works the Bakken oil field near Williston, North Dakota, June 2011
    2018Still BuildingOpen nowThe Shale RevolutionAmerican drillers cracked the rock and made the United States the world’s largest producer of oil and gas.#1oil producer
  84. Army Capt. Isaiah Horton, a doctor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, gets one of the military’s first COVID-19 shots, 14 December 2020.
    2020Still BuildingOpen nowOperation Warp SpeedThe previous record for a new vaccine was four years. Americans did it in eleven months.11months
  85. Perseverance takes a selfie with Ingenuity, about 13 feet away on the floor of Jezero Crater, 6 April 2021
    2021Still BuildingOpen nowFirst Flight on MarsA four-pound helicopter flew in air one percent as thick as Earth’s, 117 years after Kitty Hawk.39seconds in the air
  86. Starship lifts off from Starbase, Texas, on its fifth flight test, 13 October 2024.
    2024Still BuildingOpen nowThe Rocket Comes HomeSpaceX landed an orbital booster upright in 2015. In 2024 it caught a 233-foot one in the arms of the launch tower.233 ftbooster caught