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"This Land Is ..." Exhibition

Exhibitions
A well-worn guitar is superimposed over an early printing of the Declaration of Independence.

Sun., June 14, 2026–Mon., Jan. 11, 2027

Closed October 6-16 for light-sensitive rotations.

THIS LAND IS...

MaryLou and George Boone Gallery

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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."
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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. 

Exhibition Highlights

Co-curated by Josh Garrett-Davis, the H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western American History, and Linde B. Lehtinen, the Philip D. Nathanson Senior Curator of Photography, the exhibition’s highlights include:  

  • Two rare, annotated July 1776 printings of the Declaration of Independence
  • Unique documents from the history of surveying American lands, including a hand-drawn survey of Mount Vernon by George Washington and a hand-drawn design for a garden at Monticello by Thomas Jefferson, as well as a rare map of the 1760s survey of the Mason-Dixon Line and a manuscript page from Thomas Pynchon’s 1997 novel Mason & Dixon
  • Documents related to Colonial Pennsylvania’s swindle of more than a million acres of Delaware/Lenape land in the infamous Walking Purchase
  • Literary evocations of land in manuscripts by Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Octavia E. Butler
  • A 1936 acoustic guitar owned by itinerant songwriter and activist Woody Guthrie and inscribed with the words “This Machine Kills Fascists,” courtesy of the Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, Washington
  • Drawings, journal pages, and a painting of George Washington made by Woody Guthrie, courtesy of the Woody Guthrie Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
  • Explorations of the U.S.-Mexico border from a survey after the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to present-day art and political contestation
  • Civil War and Reconstruction–era materials including photography, personal writings, and a Congressional resolution to pass the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery
  • Depictions of the national park system from its origins to the present  
  • Family photographs and documents by Japanese American flower farmers in Los Angeles before, during, and after their World War II incarceration
  • Contemporary artworks that confront historic and contemporary revolutions, displacements, and communities, including photographs by William Camargo and Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), and a large painting by the late Los Angeles muralist Noni Olabisi
  • Other artistic expressions about American lands and histories from California painter Agnes Pelton and Gee’s Bend, Alabama, quilter Mary Lee Bendolph

In Gallery Spotlight

Title: Noni Olabisi: Troubled Island

This short documentary film explores the mural Troubled Island, created by artist Noni Olabisi (1954-2022) with assistance from Charles “Boko” Freeman.  The painting interprets the 1949 opera of the same title, composed by William Grant Still with a libretto by Langston Hughes, and it occupies a 100-foot wall on the side of the William Grant Still Arts Center (WGSAC) in Los Angeles’ West Adams neighborhood. Troubled Island dramatizes the Haitian Revolution through the life of Haiti’s first emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and links the Caribbean struggle for freedom with that of the United States.

Directed by Desha Dauchan

Featuring interviews with Noni Olabisi’s son, Oronde Spears; WGSAC director Amitis Motevalli; UC Irvine historian Felix Jean-Louis; and Huntington curator Armando Pulido

Created in association with the exhibition “This Land Is …” at The Huntington, June 14, 2026-January 11, 2027

Programs & Events

A suite of public programs accompanies the initiative, fostering civic reflection and cross-generational dialogue on the American story through the lens of land.

See Related Events

Related Stories

Detail of the Declaration of Independence (recto), broadside published in New York by John Holt, July 1776. Annotations by John McKesson (ca. 1734–1798). Photo by David Esquivel. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

The Declaration of Independence at The Huntington

The Huntington holds six rare printings of the Declaration of Independence produced within five weeks of July 4, 1776—an unmatched West Coast collection that reveals how the Declaration was printed, circulated, read, debated, and used during the founding months of the United States.

Read the Story
Typewritten text of Langston Hughes poem "Let America Be America Again"

“America Will Be!”

What can Langston Hughes, giant sequoias, the Declaration of Independence, and Woody Guthrie’s guitar reveal about the American story? “This Land Is …” curators Josh Garrett-Davis and Linde B. Lehtinen explore how the exhibition balances clear-eyed histories with hope for what America can become.

Read the Story
A tan paper with a title in large font that reads, “In Congress, July 4, 1776, a declaration by the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled.”

Proclaiming Independence

In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress considered it imperative that the official text of the Declaration of Independence be disseminated as quickly and widely as possible.

Read the Story
text on old manuscript

A Founding Document

In September 1758, the 62-year-old Lt. Col. Conrad Weiser (1696–1760), a veteran Indian interpreter, recorded a speech delivered by a man whose name he rendered as Ackowano Thio, or Ackowanothio. 

Read the Story

Companion Materials

THIS LAND IS ...: FIELD NOTES ON AMERICAN GROUND

Order your copy.

A richly illustrated companion book titled This Land Is …: Field Notes on American Ground features a diverse roster of writers, scientific and humanities scholars, and artists who reflect on the theme of the land and their relation to it. Edited by Josh Garrett-Davis, H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western American History, and Linde B. Lehtinen, Philip D. Nathanson Senior Curator of Photography, the volume includes a foreword by Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence. 

 

Order the book

Contributors include Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; historians Natalia Molina and Claudio Saunt; authors Terry Tempest Williams, Jamaica Kincaid, and Lisa See; graphic novelists Kiku Hughes and Julie Fiveash (Diné); and artists Sandy Rodriguez and Mercedes Dorame (Tongva). The publication is illustrated with historical documents, photographs, and artworks, including a foldout of one of The Huntington’s unique 1776 printings of the Declaration of Independence. This Land Is …: Field Notes on American Ground (ISBN: 978-0-87328-274-1, $45) is distributed worldwide by the University of Pennsylvania Press. 

The THIS LAND IS … Initiative

The exhibition is part of The Huntington’s sweeping, multiyear THIS LAND IS … initiative, which invites visitors to reflect on the American story through the lens of land. Anchored by the phrase “Reflections for America at 250,” the initiative draws on The Huntington’s library, art, and botanical collections to reveal layered, multidisciplinary narratives about the relationship between people, place, and nation.

More about the initiative

Sponsors

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Hahn & Hahn LLP.

Blue text in all-caps reading "HAHN & HAHN LLP / LAWYERS."

Funding for this exhibition is provided by the Douglas and Eunice Erb Goodan Endowment. Additional funding is provided by The Shapiro Center for American History and Culture, the Robert F. Erburu Exhibition Endowment, the Steinmetz Foundation, The Ahmanson Foundation Exhibition and Education Endowment, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The Melvin R. Seiden-Janine Luke Exhibition Fund in memory of Robert F. Erburu, and the Boone Foundation.

This exhibition  is  part of The Huntington’s THIS  LAND  IS … initiative, which is made possible through major support from The Fletcher Jones Foundation and  Stewart R. Smith, Robin A. Ferracone, Logan Smith, and Tracy Beetler through The H. Russell Smith Foundation. Generous support for  this  initiative  is  also provided by  LeeAnn and Ronald Havner through the JCS Foundation.