London Exhibitions | 23 October 2026 to 25 April 2027
This year marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the Science Museum is marking it with a major new free exhibition. Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation, supported by Griffin Catalyst, opens on Friday 23 October and runs until 25 April 2027.
Rather than retelling the story of the Revolution, it looks at how science and technology shaped the land, the peoples and the identity of the United States as it came into being. It covers four decisive decades, from the 1760s, when Britain took territorial control from France, through to the first US presidency in the 1790s. Here are five reasons to book.
1. It’s free
Tickets are free, but booking is required. With the exhibition opening at the start of October half term, early slots are likely to be popular, so it’s worth reserving ahead. It runs for six months, so there’s plenty of time if you’d rather wait for a quieter day.
2. A rare Declaration of Independence
One of the star objects is a rare surviving Dunlap print of the Declaration of Independence from 1776, one of only 26 known to exist anywhere in the world.
If you want to read up before your visit, the museum has published a blog by curator Elissavet Ntoulia on the science behind the Declaration and its language.
3. More than 100 remarkable objects
The exhibition brings together over a hundred maps, paintings, instruments and artefacts. Highlights include:
- Benjamin Franklin’s pioneering chart of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, the first known map of it
- A surveying compass believed to have been used to mark out the Mason-Dixon line
- A ten-foot dugout canoe made using traditional Indigenous American fire methods, commissioned specially for the exhibition
- Charles Willson Peale’s painting Exhumation of the Mastodon, from around 1807
4. A king and a president
The exhibition follows the stories of King George III and George Washington, two men on opposite sides of history who both had a keen interest in science.
Look out for an ornate microscope made specially for George III, and a Mark Catesby watercolour of a bald eagle once owned by the king. You can see more of his personal collection of instruments in the museum’s permanent Science City 1550–1800 gallery, which shows how science helped turn London into a global city.
5. Stories that are often left out
Becoming America also shines a light on people usually missing from the story. It explores the knowledge and skills of enslaved and free people of African descent, including the botanical knowledge of enslaved women, and the scientific practices of Indigenous Americans such as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which predated the new nation and continue today.
Make a day of it: The National Archives in Kew is running its own free exhibition, Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story 1763–1783, with pivotal documents including the Olive Branch Petition, the Stamp Act and an original Dunlap broadside printed on the night of 4 July 1776.
Plan your visit
Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation
Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD
23 October 2026 to 25 April 2027
Free, booking required
Nearest station: South Kensington
You might also like: Seeing the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum: 5 Things to Know Before You Go and 5 Reasons to Visit the New Royal Marines Experience at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.