Free exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, with the Washington Peace Medal, a wampum belt and a handwritten copy of the Declaration.
Declaring Independence: USA 250 is on at the British Museum from 30 June to 29 November 2026, in Room 3. It marks 250 years since the Thirteen Colonies declared independence from Britain on 4 July 1776, and it looks at the Indigenous and global histories that sat behind the founding of the United States.
At the centre is the Washington Peace Medal, engraved by Paul Revere in Boston in 1777. The Revolutionaries gave it to the Wabanaki Confederacy to mark a Treaty of Friendship and Alliance against the British, but the British confiscated it shortly after and handed it to King George III as a war trophy. King George IV later donated it to the museum in 1825. The medal shows George Washington surrounded by thirteen hands representing the Thirteen Colonies, with an allegorical Native North American figure. Around it, a wampum belt from 1712 and a pipe tomahawk given to the Mohawk leader Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) show how diplomatic gifts were used to negotiate loyalty and land rights.
A handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence arrives halfway through the run, so if you go early you'll miss it. There's also a large-print guide available for visually impaired visitors.
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Admission is free, and the display runs daily from 10:00 to 17:00, with late opening on Fridays until 20:30.
