"This Land Is ..." Exhibition

Name: "This Land Is ..." Exhibition | The Huntington
Start: Sun, Jun 14 2026 - Mon, Jan 11 2027
Location: The Huntington

Exhibitions

In dialogue with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the exhibition brings together diverse perspectives on the relationship between nature and nation, and how the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are intertwined with place.

Exhibition Highlights | Programs & Events | Related Stories | Companion Materials

The exhibition’s title references the iconic 1940s song “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie, with the ellipsis inviting reflection on the American project and land as both a geographical and metaphorical space of promise, struggle, and belonging.

Moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from precolonial America to the 21st century, the exhibition presents multiple perspectives addressing such topics as opportunity and dispossession, mapping and ecology, and preservation and repair. A wide range of voices from the past and present—across distant geographies—come together through documents, artworks, and artifacts to tell a multilayered story.

A worn and printed early copy of the Declaration of Independence.

A guitar with a worn wooden body hangs on a wall.

Poster print of a home built among a forest of tall trees with some of their bases cut out for children to play in. Caption says, "The Mammoth Tree Grove."

A red and black painted mural with a man conducting music at center shows scenes inspired by the Haitian revolution and an opera about the uprising.

A wide color photograph of a group of Indigenous children in traditional dress running through a desert landscape among wind turbines.

Ancient abandoned ruins sit below and inside a large flat-face mountain rock wall. Print caption says "Ancient Ruins in the Canoñ de Chelle, N.M."

Book cover with the Statue of Liberty in front of a "sky" of red clouds, blue sky, and white stars. Gold inlay text says, "Our New Possessions" and "Four Books in One Volume."

A hand-drawn map of the Americas shows the South American continent and North America without the West and Pacific Northwest regions of the continent.

An architectural-style plan shows a spiral to the right and rectangular chambers named after plants and people.

A printed letter that leads with "George Washington, President of the United States of American, To all to whom the[s]e Pre[s]ents shall come:" plus the signatures of Washington and Jefferson.

A newspaper with the title "Akwesasne Notes," a subhead that reads, "Where the partridge drums," and a feature story titled, "Trail of Broken Treaties."

A wide-angle, black-and-white photo of people spaced apart in a flower field.

Handwritten notes on a piece of paper leads with the title, "To Other Lands."

Broadside of Declaration of Independence with manuscript annotations by John McKesson, New York: John Holt, July 1776. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

C. F. Martin & Co., Model OOO-18 guitar owned and inscribed by Woody Guthrie, spruce, mahogany, celluloid, ebony, mother of pearl, 1936. Photo by Nathaniel Willson, courtesy of the Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle.

Unidentified artist (“J.G.”), The Mammoth Tree Grove, Calaveras County, California, published by A. J. Campbell, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1860. Lithograph. Jay T. Last Collection. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Noni Olabisi (1954–2022), Troubled Island mural rendering, ca. 2003–06. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the Estate of Noni Olabisi.

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi, b. 1977), Evolvers, 2019. Inkjet print, 37 × 119 in. (94 × 302.3 cm). Purchased with funds from The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation. © Cara Romero. All Rights Reserved. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Timothy O’Sullivan (1840–1882), Ancient Ruins in the Cañon de Chelle, N.M., In a niche 50 feet above present Cañon bed, Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian (United States), 1873 [detail]. Albumen print. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Trumbull White, Our New Possessions: Four Books in One: A Graphic Account, Descriptive and Historical, of the Tropic Islands of the Sea Which Have Fallen Under Our Sway, Philadelphia: Syndicate Publishing Co., 1898. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

John Overton, A new and most exact map of America …, 1671. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Thomas Jefferson, plan of spring roundabout, Monticello, before 1794, [detail]. Thomas Jefferson collection. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, letter of protection to “the nation of Indians called the Eel Rivers,” May 7, 1793. George Washington collection. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Akwesasne Notes, “Trail of Broken Treaties” special issue, Akwesasne, Mohawk Nation, early winter 1973. Courtesy of Marjorie Skidders. AP Photo: Bob Daugherty; Washington Star Photo: John Bowden, Pete Schmick; Daily Rag Photo: Dara Harris. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Paris Photographic Studio, Flower Field in Los Angeles-Hollywood, California, United States, Operated by the Kuromi Family of Shimane Prefecture, 1928, printed later [detail]. Gelatin silver print. Arthur Ito papers. Gift of James A. Ito and Paul N. Coman. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Walt Whitman (1819–1892), “To Other Lands…” manuscript added to the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, ca. 1860. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.