Free and Independent
April 9, 2026 – July 18, 2026
The Newberry, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago IL 60610
A library is the perfect place to explore the origins of a country founded on words.​ What did Congress mean when they declared that “all men are created equal,” that people had an unalienable right to “the pursuit of happiness,” that the British King was a “tyrant,” or that the former colonies were now “Free and Independent States”? How did contemporaries of all kinds in 1776 interpret these words? And how might our own understandings dif