Free and Independent: The Declaration of Independence and the Words That Made the United States
April 9, 2026 – July 18, 2026
HOOK Space, Fine Arts Building, 410 S Michigan Avenue, 6th Floor, Suite 632E, Chicago IL 60605
Free and Independent: The Declaration of Independence and the Words That Made the United States , features a rare early copy of the Declaration. The exhibition features more than two dozen historic items inviting visitors to survey selected phrases from the Declaration, such as "All Men are created equal," and to consider some of the surprising ideas behind those words. Collection items highlight influential figures such as John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. On display will be the only surviving manuscript copy of John Jay’s Federalist no. 3 , one of only five surviving manuscript drafts of any of the Federalist essays. The exhibition is curated by Eric Slauter, Deputy Dean of the Arts and Humanities Division and the College at University of Chicago. Slauter is the author of The State as a Work of Art: The Cultural Origins of the Constitution , essays on the language of rights and equality in early America, and a forthcoming book on the origins, meanings, and afterlives of the Declaration of Independence.