American Landmarks: Declaration of Independence

Written 250 years ago, the Declaration of Independence had global influence. But how did news of it reach the wider world, including California? Learn about the various July 1776 versions of the Declaration—including two copies on view in The Huntington's "This Land Is ..." exhibition (opening June 14)—and the ways in which the text and ideas of this revolutionary document traveled across the continent and beyond. Following a short panel conversation moderated by W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research Susan Juster, featuring historian Steven Hackel and Huntington curators Olga Tsapina and Diego Godoy, attendees will be invited to discuss the revolutionary promises of the Declaration in conversation with other, more contemporary, declarations of emancipation.  

Key Details

• Please check in at Admission window #10. Reservations are required to participate in this event and include admission to The Huntington after 2 p.m.
• Event ticketholders are welcome to enter The Huntington’s grounds starting at 2 p.m. on the day of the event in order to take a self-guided tour of the “This Land Is ...” exhibition in the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery. This exhibition features two copies of the Declaration from 1776.
• The walk between Boone Gallery and Haaga Hall takes approximately 15 minutes. It is recommended that you arrive by 4 p.m. if you wish to take a self-guided tour. Last admission time for galleries and gardens is 4:30 p.m.

About the Speakers

Steven Hackel, Professor of History, University of California, Riverside  

Steven Hackel is a historian of early America specializing on the Spanish Borderlands, colonial California, and Native Californians. He is especially interested in Native responses to colonialism, the effects of disease on colonial encounters, and new ways of visualizing these processes through digital history.  

Olga Tsapina, Norris Foundation Curator of American History, The Huntington

Since 1998, Olga Tsapina has been at The Huntington, where she oversees the American history collections in the Library. She has curated exhibitions on Jamestown, the history of collecting Abraham Lincoln materials, the Seven Years War, the Civil War, and the Thirteenth Amendment. She is currently working on an upcoming installment of “Stories from the Library.” Her article on The Huntington's unique printings of the Declaration of Independence has been accepted for a special issue of the American Historical Review.

Diego Godoy, Associate Curator of California and Hispanic Collections, The Huntington

Diego Godoy joined The Huntington in 2024. A native Angeleno, he is glad to be back home after spending the better part of a decade out of state—first at the University of Texas at Austin, pursuing a Ph.D. in Latin American history, then at Duke University, as Latin American Librarian. He is currently working on an upcoming installment of “Stories from the Library.”  He plans to publish his doctoral dissertation on mid-20th-century criminology and detection in Mexico City as a graphic novel.

Susan Juster, W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, The Huntington (moderator)

Susan Juster joined The Huntington in 2023 after a career teaching early American history at the University of Michigan. She is a scholar of the 17th- and 18th-century Atlantic world, focusing on Protestant and Catholic communities in early America. Her most recent book is A Common Grave: Being Catholic in English America (UNC Press, Omohundro Institute, 2025). 

About the American Landmarks series 

The American Landmarks series explores historical touchstones, including objects featured in the “This Land Is…” exhibition, through a mix of panel discussions and community conversations. Join scholars, storytellers, and community experts to excavate the layered histories of this country through these cultural landmarks and discuss the lessons they hold for the present. The series is presented with the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute as part of the LA2026 project, which has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.