Museum of American Exceptionalism
← All wings

1620 to 2024

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

  1. 1620LibertyOpening soonThe Mayflower CompactBefore they set foot ashore, the Pilgrims agreed to govern themselves by laws they would make together.41signers
  2. 1775LibertyOpening soonThe Shot Heard Round the WorldFarmers turned out at dawn, stood at the North Bridge, and chased the King’s regulars all the way back to Boston.3,763militiamen
  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 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
  6. 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
  7. 1803FrontierOpening soonThe Louisiana PurchaseJefferson’s envoys doubled the size of the United States in a single treaty, for about three cents an acre.828,000square miles
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 1825BuildersOpening soonThe Erie CanalDug largely by hand across upstate New York, it opened the West and made New York City the nation’s port.363miles
  12. 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
  13. 1847ValorOpening soonTo the Halls of MontezumaWinfield Scott landed at Veracruz, cut loose from his supply line and marched on an enemy capital, winning every battle.6months
  14. 1862FrontierOpening soonThe Homestead ActAny citizen willing to live on 160 acres and farm it for five years could own it. 1.6 million families did.270Macres settled
  15. 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
  16. 1863LibertyOpening soonA New Birth of FreedomLincoln spoke for about two minutes at Gettysburg and defined what the nation was for.272words
  17. 1867FrontierOpening soonSeward’s BargainMocked as Seward’s Folly, the purchase of Alaska added 586,000 square miles of gold, oil and strategic coast.2¢an acre
  18. 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
  19. 1875BuildersOpening soonCarnegie SteelAndrew Carnegie’s mills made steel cheap and plentiful, and put America ahead of Britain as the world’s steelmaker.#1in world steel
  20. 1876InventionOpening soonMr. Watson, Come HereAlexander Graham Bell spoke the first words over a wire in Boston. Within a lifetime, the whole country was connected.1876first call
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 1898ValorOpening soonSan Juan HillRoosevelt’s Rough Riders and the regulars charged up the heights outside Santiago under fire and took them.1day
  24. 1901BuildersOpening soonSpindletopA Texas gusher blew 150 feet into the air, and the oil age began.100,000barrels a day
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. 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
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 1925GritOpening soonThe Serum Run to NomeTwenty mushers and their dogs carried diphtheria serum through an Alaskan blizzard in five and a half days.674miles
  31. 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
  32. 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
  33. 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
  34. 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
  35. 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
  36. 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
  37. 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
  38. 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
  39. 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
  40. 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
  41. 1944Arsenal of DemocracyOpening soonPenicillin for D-DayA mold that barely grew in a British lab became a mass-produced American drug in time for the Normandy landings.2.3Mdoses by D-Day
  42. 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
  43. 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
  44. 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
  45. 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
  46. 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
  47. 1948Arsenal of DemocracyOpening soonThe Marshall PlanAmerica rebuilt the nations it had just fought for, and the ones it had fought against.$13Bto rebuild Europe
  48. 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
  49. 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
  50. 1956BuildersOpening soonThe Interstate HighwaysThe largest public works project in history tied the whole continent together with four-lane roads.41,000miles
  51. 1958Arsenal of DemocracyOpening soonNautilus Under the PoleThe world’s first nuclear submarine sailed beneath the Arctic ice cap and across the top of the world.90°Nunder the ice
  52. 1962Sky & SpaceOpening soonGodspeed, John GlennJohn Glenn circled the Earth three times in under five hours and put America in the space race for good.3orbits
  53. 1963GritOpening soonAmericans on EverestAn American team put six men on top of the world, and two of them made the first traverse of the summit.29,028feet
  54. 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
  55. 1966InventionOpening soonThe Green RevolutionNorman Borlaug, an Iowa farm boy, bred wheat that ended famine across much of Asia.1Blives
  56. 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
  57. 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
  58. 1970Sky & SpaceOpening soonHouston, We’ve Had a ProblemAn oxygen tank blew 200,000 miles from Earth. Mission Control and three astronauts brought the crew home alive.87hours to get home
  59. 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
  60. 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
  61. 1981Sky & SpaceOpening soonColumbiaTwo astronauts flew a brand-new winged spacecraft into orbit on its first flight and landed it like an airplane.1streusable spaceship
  62. 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
  63. 1991ValorOpening soonThe 100-Hour WarThe ground war to free Kuwait ended in 100 hours. The fourth-largest army in the world was routed.100hours
  64. 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
  65. 2001Still BuildingOpening soonThe Horse SoldiersWeeks after 9/11, a twelve-man team rode into Afghanistan on horseback and helped topple the Taliban.12Green Berets
  66. 2004Still BuildingOpening soonFallujahMarines and soldiers cleared a fortified city house by house, the hardest urban battle since Hue.10days of street fighting
  67. 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
  68. 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
  69. 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
  70. 2018Still BuildingOpening soonThe Shale RevolutionAmerican drillers cracked the rock and made the United States the world’s largest producer of oil and gas.#1oil producer
  71. 2020Still BuildingOpening soonOperation Warp SpeedThe previous record for a new vaccine was four years. Americans did it in eleven months.11months
  72. 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
  73. 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