Drexel University and the Atwater Kent Collection will be featured throughout the city as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, Drexel and its partners at several of the city’s cultural institutions are hosting exhibits about Philadelphia’s history that showcase artifacts from the Collection. All of the Drexel-curated exhibits are free and open to the public.

Since Drexel began its stewardship of the Atwater Kent Collection in 2022, the University has designed exhibits and partnered with institutions to tell the stories of Philadelphia’s rich history. There are more than 133,000 historical artifacts in the Collection and to date, Drexel has made over 20,000 objects available digitally via the AKC Online Collection database.

“It’s really a privilege for us at Drexel, not only to care for these incredible pieces of our city’s history, but to ensure as many people can enjoy them as possible, whether online or on display,” said Rosalind Remer, PhD, Drexel’s senior vice provost for Libraries, Collections & Archives and founding director of the Lenfest Center for Cultural Partnerships. “We also love the opportunity to partner with organizations across the city and beyond to share these unique treasures.”

As part of Drexel's goal to make the Atwater Kent Collection accessible, as a "museum without walls," the Collection exhibit projects have received funding from the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the William Penn Foundation, the Connelly Foundation and others.

"We are so excited to be able to share Philadelphia history through different objects in many locations this year — and into the future, both physically and digitally,” said Stacey Swigart, director of the Atwater Kent Collection.

Two of the Drexel-curated exhibits were announced earlier this spring. Revisit 1876, an exhibition highlighting Philadelphia’s historic hosting of the 1876 Centennial, will be on view starting this summer at the Lits Building at 8th and Market Streets. The modern popup display will give visitors a unique experience of the first world’s fair held in the U.S. — the 1876 Centennial Exposition. It features a series of glowing pavilions, representing Centennial structures; souvenir artifacts and historic images from the Atwater Kent Collection and others; and an aerial video comparing the city and Fairmount Park’s fairgrounds then and now.

Pennsylvania’s Founding: How a City and a Colony Shaped America’s Civic DNA, which is set to open in late September at the National Constitution Center, tells a story about the origins of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, and how William Penn’s founding ideas became “American” ways. This special exhibition brings together — for the first time — original versions of some of the most important documents and artifacts from the 1600s and 1700s that helped define the civic character of the city and early America.

Another exhibit, entitled America’s National Anniversaries & Philadelphia on the World Stage, is scheduled to open on July 1 at the renovated First Bank of the United States. The Atwater Kent Collection exhibits souvenirs and artifacts from the 1876 Centennial and 1926 Sesquicentennial (both world’s fairs), as well as the 1976 Bicentennial celebrated in Philadelphia. Alongside it is an exhibition from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, Office of Cultural Heritage and the Fund to Conserve U.S. Diplomatic Treasures Abroad, called Marks of Friendship: 250 Years of U.S. Diplomatic Treasures. This will showcase a selection of gifts representing America’s international relationships over the last 250 years.

Other Drexel-curated public exhibits featuring the Atwater Kent Collection include: Radios From the Atwater Kent Collection, South Street Renaissance Revisited, Exploring National Anniversaries Through the Atwater Kent Collection, In Her Own League: The Baseball Collection of Helen Beitler, Gimbels Mural Paintings and Building Nations: Neoclassicism in Fashion and Decorative Arts.

Here is a full schedule of Drexel’s current and upcoming exhibits featuring artifacts from the Collection:

• Radios From the Atwater Kent Collection, WHYY, Dec. 15, 2025–Dec. 2026
• South Street Renaissance Revisited, South Street Headhouse District, May 22–Nov. 30, 2026
• Exploring National Anniversaries Through the Atwater Kent Collection at Drexel, W.W. Hagerty Library, Drexel University, May 29–Nov. 13, 2026 (Library Exhibit Initiative)
• In Her Own League: The Baseball Collection of Helen Beitler, Parkway Central Library, Free Library of Philadelphia, June 16–Aug. 29, 2026
• Revisit 1876, Lit Brothers Department Store, June 25–Dec. 26, 2026 (with Center City District Foundation)
• America’s National Anniversaries & Philadelphia on the World Stage, First Bank of the United States, Independence National Historical Park, July 1, 2026–Feb. 15, 2027
• Gimbels Mural Paintings, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, summer/fall 2026
• Pennsylvania’s Founding: How a City and a Colony Shaped America’s Civic DNA, National Constitution Center, Sept. 30, 2026–Jan. 3, 2027
• Building Nations: Neoclassicism in Fashion and Decorative Arts, Paul Peck Alumni Center Gallery, Drexel University, Nov. 12, 2026–March 2027

Additional Displays around Philadelphia and the region that feature artifacts from the Atwater Kent Collection:

• The Forgotten Freedom: American Assembly at 250, National Liberty Museum, March 6, 2026–Aug. 30, 2027
• A Nation of Artists, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Drexel University Main Building, Second Floor American Art Galleries, April 11, 2026–July 5, 2027
• The First Salute, Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, April 23, 2026–April 30, 2027
• Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dorrance Galleries, April 25–Aug. 2, 2026
• Lancaster’s Revolutionaries, Historic Rock Ford, Addition to the John J. Snyder, Jr. Gallery of Early Lancaster County Decorative Arts, April 1, 2026–Nov. 1, 2027
• Five Independent Souls: The Signers from New Jersey, Morven Museum & Garden, May 3, 2026–Jan. 17, 2027
• Philadelphia’s Radical Revolution, A Semisesquincentennial Exhibition at The Library Company of Philadelphia, May 6–Oct. 9, 2026
• A Century in the Making: 100 Years of ASHM, American Swedish Historical Museum, May 9, 2026–Jan. 10, 2027
• Preserving Independence: Revolutions and Remembrance in Trenton, N.J., 1758–Today, Old Barracks Museum, July 2026 (and December 2026 and beyond)
• Workshop of the World: Arts & Crafts in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Morgan, Korman, and Field Galleries (150–155), July 5–Oct. 18, 2026
• “Logania redux,” Stenton – National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in PA, summer/fall 2026–Sept. 2028.
• Procuring Liberty in the Emerging Nation, Cliveden, May 1, 2026–late November 2028.
• Southeastern Pennsylvania Longrifles—The Early Years, Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center, July 18–Oct. 18, 2026