Exhibition on the First Amendment's freedom of assembly, with artefacts from the Senator John Heinz History Center and Independence National Historical Park.
Showing Up Since 1776: Assembly, Association, Protest is on at the National Liberty Museum in Old City. It's one of the exhibitions that make up The Forgotten Freedom: American Assembly at 250, a landmark series created for the nation's 250th anniversary that looks at the First Amendment's freedom of assembly. The show puts assembly at the center of the American story, tracing how ordinary people gathering in colonial meeting halls and taverns, on concert stages and in sports arenas have driven extraordinary change.
It's organized into five sections: Born in Assembly, Halls of Assembly, Freedom to Disagree, The Ties That Bind and One Song, Many Voices. The artifacts on display come from partners like the Senator John Heinz History Center, PA Youth Vote, Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust, Independence National Historical Park and Chester County History Center. You'll find a Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five record, a Taylor Swift fan jacket and a Girl Scout Daisy vest among them—the kind of things that show how assembly reaches from the political to the cultural.
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The museum itself is at 321 Chestnut Street in Old City, and it also houses a twin Liberty Bell and Dale Chihuly's Flame of Liberty. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors 65 and older, $8 for students with a valid ID, $6 for youth ages 6 to 17, and free for children under 5. Museum members get in free.
