The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester has opened a new exhibit tied to the America250 celebration, featuring rare documents and printed materials that helped shape the American Revolution. To mark the nation’s semiquincentennial, the JFK Library will offer free admission to all visitors on July 3, 4, and 5.
“Declaring the Revolution: America’s Printed Path to Independence” opened June 22 and runs through Nov. 29 at the library on Columbia Point. The exhibit draws from David M. Rubenstein’s Americana Collection and includes pamphlets, books, broadsides, maps, and engravings that trace the origins of the Revolution and the ideas behind the Declaration of Independence.
Highlights include one of the remaining 50 original William J. Stone prints of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere’s 1770 print of the Boston Massacre, an original Boston-printed edition of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the first American-printed map of eastern Massachusetts from the Revolutionary era, and a 1733 decorative facsimile of the Magna Carta.
“The story of American independence is not told solely through the words of the Declaration of Independence,” said JFK Library Director Alan Price. “It is also revealed through the printed works, personal stories, and acts of courage that shaped the Revolutionary era.”
The library, located off Morrissey Boulevard next to UMass Boston, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Parking is free, and a free shuttle runs from the JFK/UMass MBTA station.
