Attachment_H_WASO_VisionForThe250th.docx

Background and Emphasis Areas for the National Park Service Introduction In 1776, the United States of America initiated an imperfect but grand experiment in democracy. That impassioned spirit has endured and continues to reverberate throughout the country. In 2026, the 250th commemoration year of the founding of the nation, millions of visitors will look to the National Park Service’s parks and programs to learn, explore, and reflect upon the meaning of these words: freedom, liberty, and justice. As stewards of the resources and programs entrusted to the National Park Service, our role is to provide opportunities for them to connect, find relevance, and understand the unique circumstances that inspired the American Revolution and the continued evolution and changes to our democratic republic since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

The 250th Commemoration provides an opportunity for the NPS to reach new audiences, create meaningful connections to diverse communities, and more fully represent the collective history and heritage of the nation. The NPS will interpret the histories, impacts, and legacies of what would become the United States, looking at the precursors and post cursors to the Revolutionary War period and the building of the nation into the present. We will tell the history, impacts, and legacies of American ideals such as constitutionalism, equality, and the mantle of the U.S. as “leaders of the free world” that have inspired and supported claims to democracy around the world. We will also tell the history of the inherent contradictions to these ideals that infused America at its inception and that we as a nation grapple with to this day.

The NPS will build upon past work and commitments stemming from earlier efforts including the pivotal work of the NPS Centennial. The NPS Centennial recognized the significant demographic, cultural, and societal shifts that had occurred since our establishment and challenged us to reimagine our role and relevance to the American public. We reintroduced ourselves as more than a collection of parks but rather as an expansive network of places and stories dedicated to representing the breadth of the American experience. We made a commitment to integrating the principles of relevancy, diversity, and inclusion and underwent an internal examination of our systems and culture in an effort to ensure that every American found meaning and value in the NPS mission. The 250th commemoration calls on us to continue, expand and deepen this critical work as we engage with our nation in a celebration, reflection, and recognition of the legacy of our founding ideals.

Historical Context (Note this is not a vision for an approach to the film, rather the historical context of the Commemoration) As we think about our nation’s founding and the touch point of the Declaration of Independence, we must reflect on the historical context and meanings of the document to ground our commemoration.

Our Constitutionalism First, the Declaration of Independence is a vision statement, laying out an aspirational ideal of an (untried and untested) relationship between the government and the governed that did not exist in the European world at that time, that: “all men are created equal with inalienable rights endowed by their Creator.” At the moment Thomas Jefferson drafted this passage, there was more global scorn than acceptance of this statement as truth—nothing self-evident about it; nor was there widespread agreement that such a political relationship was a desirable, much less viable, concept on which to organize a government or even to relate to fellow Man.

Contemporary acceptance and belief in the innate value, worth, and intellectual and moral superiority of certain classes of men—and therefore the natural ability of those to rule—infused both social and civic life on a global scale. Most world governments were based on aristocracies or rule by inherited right or violent seizure, not by consent of the people. That the 2nd Continental Congress would declare equality of men and use it as a foundation for a new government was considered contemporary, ideological lunacy. But this bold vision manifested itself into the American experiment in representative democracy, with a level of widespread civic and political participation and peaceful transition of power heretofore unknown in most government structures.

The Declaration also articulates a framework for a new nation. The 27 grievances leveled against King George of Great Britain translated into the laws, statutes, policies, and foundational principles articulated in the Articles of Confederation (1781), the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights (1787), and in individual state constitutions. The grievances identified specific individual and personal rights that were abridged by the monarchy and that the new republic would seek to protect from the potential tyranny of centralized government power. The new nation enacted this framework through Federalism—shared governance of the country by multiple, overlapping authorities between Federal, state, and local jurisdictions. It is important to note the federalism of the Haudenosuanee (Iroquois) Confederacy and other Native governance structures infused the Founding Fathers discussions even prior to the American Revolution and became important influences for several egalitarian checks and balances enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

Finally, the Declaration is a binding agreement. As a statement revoking the colonies’ relationship to Great Britain, the document declares a commitment to implementation despite challenges, setbacks, uncertainty, fierce opposition, and even hypocrisy. In fact, the Declaration was not worth the paper it was written on unless and until the colonies soundly defeated the British in the years long, ongoing war that raged outside the doors of the 2nd Continental Congress’ meeting place in the Pennsylvania State House. The document provides a standard of accountability to the stated vision for the new nation--a “promissory note” if you will-- that guarantees the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all Americans. Contemporary and succeeding generations would seize upon and call in their markers to challenge oppression and inequality that did not meet this standard. It is no wonder then that the Declaration--not the Constitution--was seized by the (white) women and men in Seneca Falls, NY as a template for the Declaration of Sentiments in demanding women’s suffrage; referenced by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address to affirm commitment to preservation of the Union; and thrown in the face of white supremacy by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech during the 1963 March on Washington. The Declaration also forms the ideological basis for the United States’ claims to be the “leader of the free world” and “Defenders of Democracy.” Having declared and fought a war to obtain independence from the greatest military force in the world in the 18th century, the U.S. becomes a symbolic and actual supporter of other anti-colonial and democratic movements around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Our Commemorations The National Park Service in its 100+ year history has commemorated the U.S. founding multiple times. Our successive efforts are typified by growth in the areas of partnerships and diverse storytelling and are always in responsiveness to the contemporary moment within our Nation’s history. We are also frequently pushed and constrained by our internal considerations and operational needs as well as the professional expertise, personal experiences and identities, and advocacy of our employees.

The U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 was undertaken as a celebration of American ideals and exceptionalism across the world stage. The National Park Service and the larger U.S. presented a more or less uncomplicated narrative history of the Revolutionary War period within the 13 British colonies and held up its laudable legacies—e.g., representative government bounded by the U.S. Constitution, equality among (M)en—and advanced the view of the United States as leader and defender of the Free World. Locally led activities and events primarily carried the celebration, and the NPS served as one partner among many to foster these efforts. The NPS carried out hundreds of events across the country but primarily reconfirmed traditional narratives for a civically engaged public expecting stories of bloody military engagement, patriotism, and individual, mythical heroism by our Founding Fathers such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. To be sure, partners such as the Afro American Bicentennial Commission pushed and achieved diversification of the National Park System and increased historic preservation of African American historical sites through national monument and National Historic Landmark designations. However, the historical fissures of the Nation’s founding were largely ignored in broader NPS interpretive and educational frameworks.

NPS’ 225th commemoration was a smaller effort than the 200th anniversary that nevertheless continued to engage local and regional partnerships and used an interpretative framework that centered on the history of the 13 colonies and their inhabitants during the Revolutionary War period. Battles and heroic figures abounded with our traditional partners, but the National Park Service also dedicated efforts to diversify perspectives by exploring the roles and telling the stories of women, African Americans, and various Indigenous Nations in the war. For the first time, NPS strategically shared stories of loyalists or Tories for whom an independent nation was undesired, the competing interests and internal fractures among and between Indian Nations protecting their homelands, and African Americans leveraging their involvement on both sides of the war to seize freedom from U.S. enslavement. The inclusion of these diversified stories and perspectives represented progress from the Bicentennial and reflected 25 years of scholarship on previously underrepresented and silenced histories and communities. The NPS also expanded its interpretation portfolio to include the first subject website for the NPS, an American Revolution handbook, teacher’s guide, online exhibits, and a summer institute for educators. However, much of NPS interpretation remained bound to the Revolutionary War period within the 13 British colonies and left unexplored the more expansive history of parts of the country that did not engage in revolution but would become an integral and geographically larger part of the United States. The NPS 225th commemoration also left intact traditional narratives that ignored, or at the very least downplayed, contradictory race and gender inequalities, their impacts and legacies embedded in the Nation’s founding and the important historical and contemporary consequences that arose from it.

The NPS Civil War to Civil Rights commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Civil War and the 50th anniversary of the modern African American Civil Rights Movement represented a sea change in NPS commemoration history. Yes, the NPS continued its excellent—though familiar—work of interpreting battles and bullets at traditional Civil War sites and by engaging traditional partners to undertake more than 100+ park-based and programmatic activities and 12 signature events such as the Jubilee Walking Classroom recreating the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march. But in a new commitment that was an institutional break from tradition, the National Park Service implemented interpretation declaring slavery as cause and catalyst of the Civil War as outlined in its strategic framework “Holding the High Ground”--despite public opposition and some internal resistance and discomfort by some employees and volunteers. The National Park Service, in conjunction with this interpretive declaration, articulated the history of Black freedom struggles and successes after emancipation. The National Park Service traced the explicit historical connections between the promise of the Declaration, the unfinished work of the Reconstruction era, and the demands of the modern African American Civil Rights Movement and made connections to contemporary demands by other communities to civil rights. We also committed to and did expand partnerships beyond existing stakeholders by engaging youth and new and underrepresented communities and became facilitators as much as lead storytellers for diverse communities to identify histories important to them and tell the stories from perspectives meaningful to their lived experiences. As articulated in the Civil War to Civil Rights Summary Report, “The desire was that this effort should not end as the NPS moved into its second century but evolve into a broader effort to more fully tell the stories of all Americans. The aim is that the Service should be an agent of understanding, healing, and change in the world today.”

For the 250th commemoration, we challenge ourselves to continue, build upon, expand, and actively seek and implement opportunities for research, stewardship, partnership, and facilitation that ensure every American has the opportunity to see their stories and perspective reflected. The NPS will serve as a leader in telling the history of the Revolutionary War period--the who, what, and when. We will also tell the multifaceted “why?” and the contemporary and historical “so what?” We will engage, along with our Nation, to grapple not only with the principle of equality declared by the Declaration of Independence but also to commit to the goal to produce equity of opportunity and outcomes for our visitors in learning, recreation, preservation, and stewardship “in order to become a more perfect Union.

A Vision for the 250th The 250th will emphasize expanding our understanding of the American people’s extraordinary diversity and exploring the nation’s continued struggle to live up to the vision penned in the Declaration of Independence. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, Indigenous people, people of African descent and women were deliberately excluded from the rights laid out in the governing framework. We will recognize that our economic, political, spiritual, and cultural vibrancy comes from our diversity.

National Park Service sites represent the authentic places where history happened, and we care for the tangible resources that help the public create meaning from their experiences. We will continue to unlock the power of place through partnerships and targeted investment in facilities, landscapes, land acquisition, collections, and interpretive media that bring to light the vast reach of the founding documents in the development of this nation and the practice of democracy through time.

The National Park Service will continually improve our place-based educational opportunities to advance a collective understanding of the nation’s expansive and complex history and inspire informed and engaged citizenship. We will spark lasting connections with youth by inspiring civic participation and interactions with NPS resources through programs, volunteer opportunities, career exposure, and employment opportunities.