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Sneak Peek: New England 250
by LAUREN SALEMO
Lauren Salemo is a junior at Northeastern University, majoring in journalism and environmental science. She spent her 2024 co-op semester working with Historic New England’s Marketing Team.
The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution is drawing near, and our region’s cultural institutions are already preparing exhibitions, educational activities, and public programs for 2026. In 2016, Congress established the bipartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to coordinate national commemorative efforts, and most state governments have also convened commissions that will provide guidance and resources for their communities—including all six New England states. As states, cities, and towns prepare to commemorate their own histories, Historic New England plans to take a regional view with its New England 250 initiative.
In Massachusetts, the MA250 Commission is developing an approach that invites people to participate in and promote the stories of underrepresented groups, including women, Indigenous communities, and people of color. In Concord, Massachusetts, the Concord Museum will unveil their exhibitions next April, since Paul Revere took his midnight ride in 1775.
Rhode Islanders also plan to kick off their recognition of the 250th earlier than other states—Rhode Island was the first colony to renounce allegiance to England, signing the Act of Renunciation on May 4, 1776. The RI250 commission has established a subcommittee to provide a framework for school curricula that integrates the state’s colonial history with its diverse voices. With the Liberty Tree Project, RI250 and Rhode Island Historical Society are partnering to plant thirty-nine red maple trees, one for each of the state’s municipalities.
Connecticut’s 250th commemorations center around tourism, public engagement, inclusive storytelling, and history and preservation education at historic sites. Connecticut has received a grant from the National Park Service for new interpretation related to the semiquincentennial at state-owned sites. At Henry Whitfield House in Guilford, for example, the commission plans to highlight a little-known story of the Indigenous woman who brokered the sale of the house. The grant also supports new interpretation at Veits’ Tavern in East Granby, where revolutionists convened. Calling attention to these “community spaces where people go and share ideas. . . and put that in today’s contemporary context,” Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Cathy Labadia said, encourages the public to ask questions about freedom, civics, and government.
Vermont’s State Historic Preservation O cer Laura Trieschmann notes that even though her state was not a colony during the Revolution, its inhabitants still contributed to the war e ort. “Passion and patriotism didn’t stop at any border,” she said. Vermont’s semiquincentennial commission aims to have all 252 cities, towns, and villages sign a 250th resolution. e commission encourages ongoing thoughtful reflection, Trieschmann explained, “to make us better Vermonters, better New Englanders, neighbors, Americans.”
Vermont’s State Historic Preservation Officer Laura Trieschmann notes that even though her state was not a colony during the Revolution, its inhabitants still contributed to the war effort. “Passion and patriotism didn’t stop at any border,” she said. Vermont’s semiquincentennial commission aims to have all 252 cities, towns, and villages sign a 250th resolution. The commission encourages ongoing thoughtful reflection, Trieschmann explained, “to make us better Vermonters, better New Englanders, neighbors, Americans.”
Maine and New Hampshire have also established semiquincentennial commissions; neither state has yet made their plans public.
Historic New England’s New England 250 plans involve developing a more inclusive history of the region’s inhabitants and their relationship to revolution. In September, the Study Center welcomed Recovering New England’s Voices Research Scholar Dr. David Naumac, who is documenting previously untold stories of New Englanders during and after the Revolution. Curator Erica Lome is planning an exhibition, Myth and Memory: Stories of the Revolution, which will open in 2026. We are planning educational programs and events related to our sites and their communities, as well.
The last time we had a national remembrance of the American Revolution was 1976, when bicentennial commemorations were meant to create a unifying moment following the divisiveness of the 1960s and the early 1970s. Steven Bellavia, an instructor at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, has extensively studied the bicentennial in the context of the Cold War. “It work[ed] really well for unifying and paving over cracks,” Bellavia said, because the bicentennial reinvigorated the Founding Fathers’ perception of American exceptionalism.
Today, however, Americans are more aware that, while the Revolution was a defining moment for some groups, it was not a turning point for all. Across New England, commissions, organizations, and museums are recentering the narrative from well-known figures to everyday people, and “those stories really matter because that’s who we are,” Trieschmann said. “The 250th should be what historic preservation is always about,” according to Labadia. “That it is honoring the places of the past, preserving those places for future generations, looking at them through contemporary lenses, and informing or grounding who we are as individuals, as a community, and how we can move forward.”
