Here’s how museums in Southern California will celebrate America 250
The United States has begun its countdown to its 250th anniversary, which will take place on July 4,
This year’s Independence Day will be bigger than usual due to the semiquincentennial, as it is called.
The celebration is overseen by the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission. It is, according to a 2024 report to Congress, “engaging communities from sea to shining sea, fostering partnerships with key stakeholders, and laying the groundwork for the largest and most inspiring commemoration in our nation’s history.”
America 250 has a red, white and blue logo akin to the logo for the 1976 Bicentennial, which captivated the nation for nearly two years.
It also has merch, available online and at places such as Virginia’s Gift Shop outside of Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park.
Items include star-spangled golf shoes for $130, foam cowboy party hats for $35.99, Betsy Ross candles for $44.99 and challenge coins for $32.99.
Although the Pacific Ocean is separated by something like 3,000 miles from the shining sea where the nation was born, many objects that connect the past to the present and future will be on display here. They include documents by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, flags and paintings.
The National Archives and Records Administration is lending several items to presidential libraries throughout the nation. It administers two of them in Southern California, for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Several museums in Southern California have or will have exhibitions related to America 250 or already have a focus on history that’s compatible with the anniversary.
Here are a few exhibitions and event to look for.
Autry Museum of the American West
4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles; theautry.org
An exhibition called “Life, Liberty, and Los Angeles” will open May 30. According to the museum’s website, it wiill share the stories of diverse Angelenos and how their attitudes affected the city’s growth as well as reflecting “the opportunities and contradictions expressed in the nation’s founding principles.”
Before that, “Desert Dreams and Coastal Currents,” opening Feb. 14, will explore artistic innovation in the Southwest.
The Autry was founded in 1988 by the late Gene Autry, cowboy movie star and former owner of KTLA and the Angels. It is near the LA Zoo in Griffith Park.
Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Battleship USS Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
250 S. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro; pacificbattleship.com, lafleetweek.com, surfacenavymuseum.org
The U.S. Navy marked its 250th anniversary in 2025, but its retired battleships always have plenty of history on display.
The Battleship Iowa will kick off its America 250 celebration with Los Angeles Fleet Week 2026, which will include a festival and tours of active-duty ships, May 22-25.
People who want to tour active-duty ships must enter a digital queue that will become available each morning May 22-25. The USS Iowa will be offering a premium “IOWA Express Experience” that will be announced before Fleet Week, according to representatives. In 2025, the experience included being able to select days and times for navy ship tours.
The USS Iowa was commissioned in 1943 and used to transport President Franklin Roosevelt to a conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca.
It has been designated the National Museum of the Surface Navy.
Two- to 4½-hour tours of the vessel can be purchased online for $29.95-$79.95. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.
ALSO SEE: Port of LA advances plans for Wilmington waterfront, USS Iowa, cruise terminal
Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino; huntington.org
The Huntington’s annotated 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence will be on display in an exhibition called “This Land Is …,” opening June 16.
The exhibition is part of a longterm initiative that explores the geography of the United States, its history and its people, according to a news release.
Other highlights will include hand-drawn land surveys by Washington and Thomas Jefferson; manuscripts by Walt Whitman and Octavia E. Butler; and a guitar owned by Woody Guthrie inscribed with, “This Machine Kills Fascists.”
An exhibition called “Becoming America” opened in December in a new wing of the Huntington’s American art gallery. It includes a recently acquired Civil War painting by Winslow Homer called “The Sutler’s Tent,” which dates from 1863.
A new garden space with native plants called Oak Meadow will launch this year.
Founded in 1919 by railroad magnate Henry Huntington at his San Marino mansion, the Huntington includes a library with nearly 12 million items; art galleries; and 130 acres of botanical gardens.
Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. It is closed on Tuesdays.
Lincoln Memorial Shrine
125 W Vine St, Redlands; lincolnshrine.org
This museum is devoted to materials related to Abraham Lincoln and calls itself the only such archive west of the Mississippi River.
Its collection includes handwritten letters by Lincoln, some from the 1860s on “Executive Mansion” letterhead, as well as personal items such as cufflinks, a cane and an adornment owned by first lady Mary Todd Lincoln.
The shrine also owns a 1945 painting by Norman Rockwell called “The Long Shadow of Lincoln.”
It will open a new exhibition related to America 250 near Independence Day, according to representatives. A current exhibition, “Slavery in America,” includes disturbing artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries, including shackles.
February is “Lincoln season” for the shrine, with an annual dinner held on his birthday, Feb. 12, at the University of Redlands. This year’s speaker will be Leonne Hudson, Kent State University professor emiritus, who will discusss the reaction of African Americans to Lincoln’s death.
The shrine will hold an open house 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 3 with hourly demonstrations of a replica Civil War era cannon.
Regular hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Nixon Library
18001 Yorba Linda Blvd, Yorba Linda; www.nixonlibrary.gov
“America 250: A More Perfect Union” opened on Nov. 22 and will run throughout the year.
The exhibition is designed to take visitors through “the most transformative events in American history,” according to the facility.
Highlights include an interactive exhibit depicting the Boston Tea Party of 1773 that invites visitors to throw crates of tea off a ship; an 18th century portrait of Washington; and a depiction of inventor Thomas Edison’s labratory.
The library’s mission is to document President Nixon’s life and times. The property includes the house where Nixon was born in 1913. Richard and first lady Pat Nixon’s graves are in a nearby garden.
The library is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum
40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley; reaganfoundation.org
A 10,000-square foot exhibition called “America: 250 Years in the Making” will run May 22-Sept. 22.
Artifiacts will include the Louisiana Purchase treaty, on loan from the National Archives. It will be on display during the last three weeks of the exhibition only. The 1803 document authorized the purchase from France of 828,000 square miles west of the Mississippi River for $15 million, or about 4 cents an acre.
According to representatives, other highlights will include a letter from Washington; Revolutionary War paintings by John Trumbull; an 18th century flag; the 1862 “I would save the union” letter regarding slavery from Abraham Lincoln to newspaper editor Horace Greeley; and a Civil War cannon from Gettysburg.
A current exhibition, “Cowboys: History & Hollywood,” will run through April 19.
Permanent exhibits tell the story of President Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan and include the Air Force One Pavilion with a Boeing 707 used by seven presidents from 1973 to 2001. The Reagans’ resting place is on the western side of the campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.
USS Midway Museum
910 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego; midway.org
Like the USS Iowa, the USS Midway was built during World War II. But it was commissioned on Sept. 10, 1945, a few days after the war officially ended. It was named after the Battle of Midway, which took place in June 1942.
The ship is associated with the 1986 Tom Cruise film “Top Gun,” which was set at nearby Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Legacy Week, May 22-25, will include a 40th anniversary “Top Gun Maverick Party & Movie Night.”
Fleet Week San Diego takes place in November, but it is also partnering with the Port of San Diego on a Big Bay Boom fireworks show on July 4. It can be viewed from several waterfront locations.
As well as the ship, the museum has more than 30 restored aircraft, according to its website.
Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Tickets start at $39 online.