Becoming America opens with maps, paintings and scientific instruments in London
London’s Science Museum has opened Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation, a free exhibition marking 250 years since US independence. More than a hundred objects include a 1776 Declaration of Independence and a Gulf Stream map. The displays bring colonial, Indigenous and African-descended communities into the account of knowledge and power; timed booking is required before the exhibition closes in April 2027.
Arts··Midday
A new London exhibition examines America’s founding
Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation has opened at London’s Science Museum, the British museum devoted to science and technology. The exhibition examines the founding of the United States through objects and the knowledge of different communities. Its opening on October 23 coincides with the 250th anniversary of American independence.[1], [2]
Supported by Griffin Catalyst, a philanthropic initiative, the free exhibition requires timed booking and runs until April 25, 2027. More than a hundred objects span maps, paintings, scientific instruments and everyday artefacts. Its historical scope runs from the 1760s to the first US presidency in the 1790s.[1]
Maps and a Declaration print anchor the display
A rare surviving Declaration of Independence printed by John Dunlap in 1776 is displayed alongside Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger’s map of the Gulf Stream, the Atlantic ocean current. Documents also address George III and George Washington’s interest in agricultural innovation. George Stubbs’ 1785 painting The Reapers and naturalist Mark Catesby’s bald-eagle watercolour are among the works on view.[1]
Indigenous and African-descended expertise enters the story
The displays include an almanac by Benjamin Banneker, a freeborn Black astronomer, mathematician and surveyor, and a portrait of Jamaican intellectual Francis Williams. The exhibition also examines knowledge within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of Indigenous nations in North America. A Mashpee Wampanoag maker made a dugout canoe using traditional fire methods for the exhibition. Loans come from institutions including the Library of Congress, the US national library, alongside Science Museum Group holdings.[1]
