Thanksgiving Weekend at the Museum

Over Thanksgiving Weekend, join us at the Museum to explore our new special exhibition, Liberty: Don Troiani's Paintings of the Revolutionary War, walk through a wintery scene in Revolution Place, make your own cookie molds for the holidays, and much more for the whole family. Plus, don't forget to find all the history buffs in your life the perfect gift this holiday season!

Liberty: Don Troiani's Paintings of the Revolutionary War
Onsite | Daily
The Museum's newest special exhibition, Liberty, will plunge visitors into some of the most pivotal events of America’s fight for independence and reveal nationally renowned historical artist Don Troiani’s research-based artistic process. For the first time in a museum, this special exhibition will bring together over 40 of Troiani’s original Revolutionary War paintings and pair them with 40 artifacts from his personal collection, that of the Museum, and several private collectors. 

Revolution Place
Onsite | Friday-Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Explore the Museum’s family-friendly discovery center, Revolution Place, which will transform into the winter of 1778! Walk in to frost-covered windows, logs piled by the fire, and 18th-century coats and cloaks as you learn about what Philadelphia would have been like in the snowy winter months and how they celebrated the winter holidays.

Create Your Own Ornaments
Onsite | Daily
Create your own winter holiday decoration with a historic baking twist. Using wooden cookie molds, like those used by Philadelphia German bakers, kids can punch out ornaments to decorate and take home to celebrate the coming winter season.

Wall of Thanks
Onsite | Daily
What are you thankful for this year? Add a note to the “Wall of Thanks” in the Museum's rotunda!

Oneida Nation Gallery
Onsite | Daily
November marks Native American Heritage Month. In the Museum’s core exhibition, visitors can explore an immersive multimedia gallery about the Oneida Indian Nation’s debate over whether or not to break away from the Six Nations Confederacy to support the Revolutionary cause. Listen as recreated figures representing Oneida men and women discuss the difficult choices they faced. 

Gallery Guide: The Marketplace of Revolution
Onsite | Daily
In colonial and revolutionary America, what you bought – and who you bought it from – told people a lot about you. Throughout the war and in the years that followed, money and the marketplace were everyone’s concern: buying things became part of what it meant to be American. This holiday shopping season, use our Marketplace of Revolution gallery guide to look for artifacts related to the “consumer revolution,” new shopping habits, and wish lists! 

Faithful Founders: New Objects Related to Jewish American History
Onsite | Daily
Celebrate the start of Hanukkah by seeing new objects related to American Jewish history in the Museum’s core galleries. During the Revolution, Philadelphia was the center of American Jewish life and brothers Barnard and Michael Gratz were a crucial part of it. After they arrived in the 1750’s, they brought the previously scattered Jewish community in the city together by supporting the Mikveh Israel congregation and building their first synagogue in Philadelphia. The brothers publicly protested British taxation in the 1760’s and suppled the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. This new display features items associated with the Gratz family including portraits of Barnard and Michael and state constitutions annotated by Barnard. The display also features a small Torah scroll and other items used by Joseph Simon, an early Jewish resident of Lancaster and later Michael Gratz’s father-in-law.

Holiday Shopping
Onsite & Online
It’s the season of giving! Let us help you find the perfect gift for your friends and family this holiday season. From gift memberships to unique gift options for all ages in the Museum Shop, the Museum has the perfect selection of meaningful gifts for the history buffs in your life.