Before America 250, New Jersey Looks Back at America's 200th

One of the more revealing stops in New Jersey's 250th-anniversary calendar is not looking back 250 years. It is looking back 50. At the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, Spirit of '76: The Bicentennial revisits the national celebration of 1976, when Americans marked two centuries of independence while still living with the political, cultural and economic fractures of the early 1970s. The exhibition has been open since February and remains on view through Feb. 21, 2027, making it a useful counterpoint to the Revolutionary history filling the rest of the state's Semiquincentennial year.

That perspective is what makes the exhibition worth treating as more than a collection of red, white and blue memorabilia. The Bicentennial was itself an act of public storytelling. Government agencies, businesses, artists and ordinary citizens were all asked, explicitly or implicitly, to decide what 200 years of American independence meant and what the country should look like while celebrating it. The result was patriotic spectacle, commercial branding, public art, commemorative objects and an enormous amount of material culture that now looks unmistakably like the 1970s.

Spirit of '76 draws entirely from the State Museum's own collection and puts that material back into conversation. Among the highlights is the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio, a group of prints commissioned from 12 artists, including New Jersey native Jacob Lawrence and Robert Indiana, around the question, 'What does independence mean to me?' The exhibition also includes state-issued license plates and maps, New Jersey-made flags, commemorative medallions, ceramics from Trenton firms including Cybis, Boehm and Lenox, and a handcrafted album quilt from Princeton.

Those objects matter because anniversaries are often remembered through their official language while lived history survives in the things people actually handled. A commemorative plate, a map, a flag or a piece of promotional design can reveal how patriotism was packaged and circulated in ways a presidential speech cannot. Fifty years later, the Bicentennial has become old enough to be history but recent enough that many visitors will still remember the merchandise, television coverage, school programs and neighborhood celebrations firsthand.

A celebration inside another celebration

The timing gives the exhibition an additional layer. In 2026, the country is again trying to decide what a major national anniversary is supposed to accomplish. The State Museum's curator of cultural history, Nicholas Ciotola, noted when the exhibition was announced that Americans in 1976 were wrestling with questions of belonging, equity and patriotism that have obvious echoes today. Officials at the time hoped the Bicentennial could provide a shared point of pride after years of turmoil. Looking at that effort now means seeing both the celebration and the desire behind it.

The exhibition also brings the story back to New Jersey's own Revolutionary landscape. Artworks and artifacts address the 'Ten Crucial Days' between Dec. 25, 1776, and Jan. 3, 1777, when Washington's crossing of the Delaware and the battles around Trenton and Princeton changed the momentum of the war. That creates a useful historical loop: visitors in 2026 are looking at how people in 1976 remembered events from 1776. The museum is not simply presenting the Revolution. It is presenting the history of remembering the Revolution.

That may be the most interesting reason to visit before the 250th anniversary year disappears into its own commemorative objects. Every generation builds a version of the past that speaks to its present. Fifty years from now, somebody may be putting our America 250 merchandise, public art, social-media graphics and anniversary programs into cases and asking the same question: what did these people think they were celebrating?

Planning the visit

Spirit of '76: The Bicentennial is on view in the second-floor Riverside Gallery at the New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street in Trenton. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., with galleries beginning to close at 4:30 p.m. General museum admission is free. The State Museum advises visitors that enhanced security procedures are currently in place, including bag checks and screening at entry.

The exhibition is scheduled to remain open through Feb. 21, 2027, so there is time to see it beyond the busiest stretch of the Semiquincentennial. But the better context may be now, while New Jersey is actively producing another layer of anniversary memory around it. We plan to head to Trenton and see what 1976 looks like from the other side of another national birthday.

Reporting & references

VisitNJ, 'Spirit of '76: The Bicentennial,' event listing and exhibition overview. SourceNew Jersey Department of State, 'New Exhibition Celebrates America's 250th with a Look Back at the Bicentennial,' Jan. 15, 2026. SourceNew Jersey State Museum, current exhibitions: Spirit of '76: The Bicentennial. SourceNew Jersey State Museum, visitor information, hours, admission and current security procedures. Source