As the nation commemorates the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts, has taken bold steps toward reshaping how we remember its beginnings. In March 2025, the Museum opened a new special exhibition entitled Whose Revolution, which explored the many different meanings of revolution in the decade leading up to the outbreak of war in 1775, expanding the stories we tell about the founding of our nation. Through a rich array of objects -- paintings, prints, political cartoons, historic clothing, textiles, furniture, and ceramics, as well as film and multimedia installations -- this exhibition centered the experiences of women, Indigenous communities, and free and enslaved Black people who grappled with the meaning of revolution in their own lives.
Among the most striking elements in the exhibition were dynamic silhouettes of real enslaved individuals— Frank, Cate, Brister, and Phyllis—who lived and labored in Concord at the time of the Revolution. These projections were installed alongside high style, 18th-century desks, high chests, and other colonial furniture to highlight the close proximity of revolutionary discourses and slavery. The silhouettes, which were supported in part by the Americana Foundation, animated the historic objects, transforming them from static relics into witnesses of complex human experience.
Other highlights of the exhibition included a lavish silk gown exemplifying the shifting political significance of imported British goods, a schoolgirl’s “metamorphic drawing” from the early 1770s, and a newly commissioned wampum choker by Elizabeth James-Perry, Aquinnah Wampanoag Culture Bearer and Artist. These items revealed the complex political and personal allegiances that shaped colonial life and helped visitors see the Revolution as a social and cultural upheaval, not just a military or political one.
Over its five-month run, Whose Revolution drew more than 20,000 visitors—more than double the Museum’s typical special exhibition attendance—including 4,000 schoolchildren. Educators reported that the silhouettes were particularly helpful in explaining the themes of the exhibition to children, because they provided a mechanism for students to visualize and imagine the experience of enslaved people at the time of the Revolution without resorting to reenactment or dramatization.
Informal visitor feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the exhibition attracted wide press coverage across New England. Building on this success, the Museum is developing a companion website to extend access to the stories and objects featured in Whose Revolution. Additionally, the silhouettes will soon become a permanent feature of the Museum’s 1775 period room, ensuring that the presence of enslaved people remains part of Concord’s ongoing interpretation of 1775.
In October 2025, the Museum built upon the themes of Whose Revolution in a new special exhibition that considers the continued disruption and turmoil in Concord through the Revolutionary War and the early republic. Through eyewitness historical objects, artworks, and documents, Transformed by Revolution continues the exploration of who participated in the fight for Independence and the many varied meanings of freedom for diverse communities.
For spring 2026, the Museum is planning its third 250th exhibition, Revolutionary Legacies, which will explore public memory of the Revolutionary War. Using relics, souvenirs, documents, commemorative ephemera, and contemporary artworks and poetry, Revolutionary Legacies will ask what we remember when we look back at the revolution, and who may be left out of the story. A fitting capstone to Whose Revolution, this exhibit will encourage visitors to continue reflecting on the promises of liberty and equality, from the founding of our nation to the present day.
Visit concordmuseum.org for more information about the Museum’s exhibitions and programs.