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Campus experiences for everyone in art, history, and ideas celebrating the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence

Declare your Curiosity

Revolution & Reflection: Campus Experiences in Art, History, and Ideas is a Fine Arts Plaza invitation to imagine the people and ideas of the United States of America at its founding and as it expanded west. It’s been 250 years since the night of July 4, 1776, when John Dunlap, official printer for the Continental Congress, first printed the Declaration of Independence. Indiana University holds an original copy of this broadside, one of only 26 remaining copies. You can see IU’s copy of the Declaration on exhibit as part of a free, multi-site experience bringing together many unique American history documents, a masterwork of American art, and monumental murals telling Indiana’s story.

Look for your guide, President George Washington, as you drop in to visit these three revolutionary destinations:

• The Lilly Library presents The Declaration of Independence: The Motives, The Moment
• The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art showcases George Washington’s portrait by Gilbert Stuart
• ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´Auditorium is the caretaker of Thomas Hart Benton’s iconic murals, titled The Social History of Indiana

Spend an afternoon with us. Or a whole day.

This self-guided offering is designed to allow you to create your own drop-in educational experience. Visit all locations in one trip or come to campus multiple times. Each Fine Arts Plaza destination has different operating hours; please consult them carefully when planning your trip. To see all locations in one visit, schedule your trip between 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday –Friday. No admission fee or campus affiliation is needed at any location. Check our online event calendar at go.iu.edu/america-250 for special event dates.

A  

European & American Art: Medieval to 1900 Gallery

1133 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, IN 47405

Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Saturday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Sunday: Noon–5 p.m. Summer hours: Tuesday–Sunday: Noon–5 p.m. Closed on Mondays.

B  

Hall of Murals

1211 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, IN 47405

Hours: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. During regular box office hours, the Hall of Murals can be viewed by Auditorium visitors as a self-guided experience. Note, the box office is not open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays, and may close for occasional special events.

C  

North Gallery

1200 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, IN 47405

Gallery Hours: Monday–Thursdays, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Fridays, 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.–
4 p.m. Closed on Sundays.

Parking

Visitor parking is available at the Indiana Memorial Union (900 E. Seventh Street) in two hourly pay lots adjacent to the building, open from 7 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. Rates are $1.50 per half hour on weekends, and $2.50 per half hour during the week. Bring your parking ticket to be validated in the Eskenazi Museum of Art or Lilly Library for discounted parking.

Before Planning Your Trip

Please confirm your destination’s hours online. Availability may change due to campus holidays, student breaks, or summer hours.

Accessibility

All locations offer accessible main entrances, ample seating, elevator access to public areas, and accessible restrooms. The Museum offers wheelchairs to borrow inside the facility. ADA-accessible parking is available directly behind the Museum. There is limited parking located around Showalter Fountain reserved for those with state-issued disability tags and/or ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´Auditorium Circle Passes.

George Washington Portrait

Map Location A

Gilbert Stuart was among the most successful portraitists of America’s early history. He painted over 1,100 portraits, and 104 of them were George Washington. Stuart was born in Rhode Island Colony in 1755. After studying art in England and Ireland, Stuart returned to the United States with the goal of painting President Washington.

Stuart painted Washington from life many times, starting in 1795. Before the invention of photography, painted portraits like this were important for politicians to establish a connection with citizens. Washington hoped to portray his democratic ideals in his dress and to be relatable to citizens. Unlike other politicians at the time, who wore wigs, Washington opted to be shown with his natural hair.

George Washington by Gilbert Stuart has been on permanent loan to Indiana University since the 1970’s. Other Washington portraits by Stuart can be found in collections around the world, including the National Portrait Gallery in London and the White House in Washington, DC. To most easily locate the portrait, enter the Eskenazi Museum of Art from Seventh Street. Look for the red Indiana Arc sculpture.

The Thomas Hart Benton Murals

Map Location B

The Social History of Indiana by Thomas Hart Benton, also called the “Indiana Murals,” was commissioned by the State of Indiana for Chicago’s Century of Progress International Exposition in 1933. After the fair, Benton oversaw the re-installation of the murals in the Indiana University Auditorium, which was dedicated in 1941. Benton painted the mural in two parallel chronological cycles, one representing the state’s cultural progress and the other its industrial progress. There are twenty-two narrative segments painted with egg tempera on canvas mounted to board.

An American Regionalist painter, Benton portrayed the history of the state from its Indigenous peoples through the Depression era. Although he included some historic structures and a few notable personages (young Abe Lincoln), the focus was on average working Hoosiers. The timeline follows in a continuous progression linked by a red, white, and blue sky. While using Indiana specific examples, Benton saw the mural’s content as “symbolical of the entire country.”

Due to space limitations, the central sixteen sections were installed in the ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´Auditorium’s Hall of Murals, while nearby, four are located in the ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´Cinema and two in Woodburn Hall.

The Declaration of Independence: The Motives, The Moment

Map Location C

The Lilly Library exhibition, The Declaration of Independence: The Motives, The Moment, shows the path colonial Americans took from subjects of a distant king to revolutionaries.

In declaring independence, the revolutionaries were trying to do something that had never been done before: step away from a mighty empire. They did not know if they would win a war of independence. If they won, they did not know what would come next. And if they lost, military and political leaders were likely to be hanged for treason.

Centering the motives and the moment allows us to focus on specific questions and explore them through the print and manuscript culture of the time. How did a people proud to be in the British empire come to believe independence was possible or even desirable? What ideas and historical events did they draw on to justify resistance to Great Britain? What kinds of communication networks would be crucial for circulating the Declaration and countless other revolutionary documents throughout the colonies?

The exhibition addresses these questions through books, letters, newspapers, and other documents drawn from the vast collections of the Lilly Library. Interacting with these materials can help us find intriguing and specific connections to historical events that are part of the general knowledge of most Americans.

In addition to IU’s exceptionally rare printing of the Declaration of Independence, highlights from the exhibition include a copy of the Stamp Act printed in New Jersey in 1765 and an edition of the Pennsylvania Evening News, the first newspaper printing of the Declaration.

K–12 educators can use the Eskenazi Museum of Art’s in March, April or May, 2026.

Community organizations can email liblilly@iu.edu to request group tours of the Lilly Library exhibition, or visit any Friday at 2 p.m. for a free drop-in tour.

Video viewing

Recommended reading

Learn about happening in Monroe County.

Indiana Humanities has to support conversations in your community around the semiquincentennial.

The state of Indiana by exploring Indiana’s role in the nation’s history.

A collaboration between the Monroe County Public Library, the Monroe County History Center, and the Monroe County GIS Division, the uses oral history and traditional sources to see where 19th century Indiana residents lived.

Don’t miss Star by Star: Growing a Nation at the , an exhibit honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence through historical flags and images.

Located at 416 N. Indiana Ave. Bloomington, IN 47405. Free parking available. Admission is free.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday–Friday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday: Noon–5:30 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.

You make community access to the performing, literary, and visual arts possible. Your gift today will inspire future exhibitions and happenings from your friends at the Indiana University Bloomington Fine Arts Plaza.

Learn how to support the partners who have brought you Revolution & Reflection.