Planned Programs
The following Penn organizations and departments are planning events and other programs in connection with America 250.
Please note that the following programs are still in the planning stages, and details may change. Penn partners should feel free to consult this list to find opportunities for collaboration. Looking for scheduled events to attend? Visit our Events and Exhibits page instead.
If you would like to join the Penn organizations and departments currently in conversation about planning for America 250, please email Lynne Farrington.
McNeil Center for Early American Studies
October 20-24, 2025: The Benjamin Franklin Distinguished Lectures
November 21-22, 2025: Conference at the Library of Congress
April 16-18, 2026 [tentative]: Francophone Revolutions Conference [with Penn Libraries]
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Spring 2026 Exhibition in the Goldstein Gallery: “Le temps de réparer tous les torts”: The time to right all wrongs: Revolutions in the Atlantic Francophone World [tentative title]
Programming related to the exhibition
April 16-18, 2026 [tentative]: Francophone Revolutions Conference [with MCEAS]
Arthur Ross Gallery
Planning an historic exhibition accompanied by lectures and seminars with grad students and undergrads
Penn Museum
Plans to center the 250th on the reinstallation of the Native American gallery; interested in K-16 involvement and the indigenous perspective
Netter Center for Community Partnerships
“An inclination join’d with an ability to serve”: Realizing Franklin’s Vision for the University of Pennsylvania, a program in early 2026 featuring a discussion with undergrad and graduate student leaders about their experiences with different forms of Community Engagement Scholarship, including Academically Based Community Services, designed to realize Franklin’s founding vision for Penn
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing
Health and Healing During the Revolution [tentative title], exhibition opening in January 2026 on nursing during the revolutionary period, paying particular attention to the practices of women and Black and indigenous peoples in healthcare during this period. Preliminary plans are for a conference or symposium to bring together scholars to present work on health and healing in the 18th century.
Common Press
The University’s letterpress studio is planning a 24-hour community event to typeset and print the Declaration of Independence.
Penn Press
Penn Press received a grant from The Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial to make a three-volume, full-color encyclopedia of the history of all of Philadelphia, titled The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, with the goal of getting the encyclopedia into the hands of every Free Library branch (gratis copies) and Philadelphia-based schools.
2026 is also the 100th anniversary of the original Negro History Week, which went on to become Black History Month.
Center for Experimental Ethnography
For 2026, a tentatively title project, Archives of Reproduction, Justice, and Care in Philly: An archive of oral histories with contemporary doulas and activists, digital multimodal research, design, tracing histories of reproductive (in)justice in Philadelphia past 250 years
Penn Live Arts
PLA will be scheduling 250th-related programming around 2026
Pennsylvania Hospital
2026 is the 275th anniversary of Pennsylvania Hospital and will be celebrated with the opening of the first floor of the historic Pine Building from April through October 2026 as a museum featuring the history of Pennsylvania Hospital, as well as information on Women’s Services and Behavioral Health over the centuries
Office of Social Equity & Community
Equity in Action Visiting Scholars (EVAS) program, fall 2025 through spring 2026, will focus on the 250th
Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND)
Campus Philly/PHENND partnership around getting every campus to do something for the 250th; received a planning grant from the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative to support, amplify, and incentivize higher education as they celebrate the Semiquincentennial; campus projects will be organized and amplified through the Campus250 website