An Unfinished Revolution at 250

**Due to weather, this event has been rescheduled to Thursday, March 5, at 6 p.m.**

In celebration of the nation’s semi quincentennial, historian and author Michael D. Hattem will present “An Unfinished Revolution at 250” at the New Haven Museum on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at 6 p.m. Hattem will discuss the unique role that the Revolution has had in American life and the longstanding tradition in American history of remembering the nation’s founding as an “unfinished revolution.” The free event will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.

Hattem notes that the principles of the Revolution have been constantly redefined to fit the needs of the times. “Countless social movements —including abolitionists, suffragists, and the civil-rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s—have tried to win popular support by depicting their causes as attempts to fulfill the ideals of the American Revolution,” he says. He notes that abolitionists were the first Americans to celebrate the Declaration of Independence specifically for its preamble and the statement that “all men are created equal.”

image: Postcard showing a woman kissing the Liberty Bell in Seattle on July 14, 1915.

You may also like the following events from New Haven Museum:

• This Sunday, 1st March, 02:00 pm, A Wonderful Struggle: Local Jewish Women in the Labor Movement in New Haven
• Next month, 28th March, 01:30 pm, Fashion Isn’t Frivolous: A Fresh Perspective on America’s 250th in New Haven
• This April, 18th April, 02:00 pm, The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America in New Haven

Also check out other Arts events in New Haven, Literary Art events in New Haven.