Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

How was the presidency established? Talk to living historians portraying John Adams and Benjamin Franklin all afternoon about the Constitutional Convention, or “the late popular Phrensy” as Adams put it to Franklin. Ask Franklin how the convention designed the executive branch, and learn how Adams missed the convention but spoke volumes about the system it created, even before he became our first vice president and second president. Don’t forget to check out their 18th-century suits and accessories!

Recommended for all ages
Free with Museum Admission

George Washington is back at the Museum, but this time you won’t be the only one taking his picture—meet Gilbert Stuart (whose portrait of Washington is on the dollar bill!) and get the inside scoop on what it was like to paint the first president. Ask George Washington how he felt about sitting for a portrait, compare the suit he is wearing with the one in Gilbert Stuart’s artwork, and learn how presidential images spread.

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

We’re celebrating Presidents’ Day over School Vacation Week! Join us on the weekends to meet the founders who became our nation’s five first presidents and first ladies.  

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

We’re celebrating Presidents’ Day over School Vacation Week! Join us on the weekends to meet the founders who became our nation’s five first presidents and first ladies.  

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

We’re celebrating Founding Presidents’ Day over School Vacation Week! Join us on the weekends to meet the founders who became our nation’s five first presidents and first ladies.  

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

We’re celebrating Presidents’ Day over School Vacation Week! Join us on the weekends to meet the founders who became our nation’s five first presidents and first ladies.  

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

We’re celebrating Presidents’ Day over School Vacation Week! Join us on the weekends to meet the founders who became our nation’s five first presidents and first ladies.  

Free with Museum Admission
Recommended for all ages

Join us on Sunday to continue the conversation about the roles of presidents from the past! President John Adams will be at the Museum to discuss the key presidential transition of 1801.

Discover why Adams tried to appoint new judges up to the last moment of his administration (until midnight!)—even though President-Elect Thomas Jefferson refused to recognize Adams’ Judiciary Act once he was inaugurated. Then share your thoughts about historic inaugurations with our living historian.