One of The Huntington’s rare, annotated July 1776 printings of the Declaration of Independence and a 1936 acoustic guitar owned by itinerant songwriter and activist Woody Guthrie, courtesy of the Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, Washington. Photo of Declaration by David Esquivel. Photo of guitar by Nathaniel Willson.
Key Takeaways:
“This Land Is …” draws on The Huntington’s library, art, and botanical collections—along with key loans—to explore land as a defining part of American life from before 1776 to the present.
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.
Highlights include two annotated July 1776 copies of the Declaration of Independence, an inscribed Woody Guthrie guitar, historic documents including early Native American treaties and a Congressional resolution to pass the 13th Amendment, a manuscript by poet Walt Whitman, and contemporary photography by artist Cara Romero (Chemehuevi).
The exhibition is organized into six thematic sections—Roots, Uprootings, Amendments, Edge Effects, Disturbances, and Regenerations—that link ecological concepts to cultural and historical meanings.
The exhibition anchors a broader, multiyear THIS LAND IS … initiative featuring public programs, conferences, educator training, a publication, and multilingual digital resources.
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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.
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.
Opening June 14, 2026, as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, The Huntington’s exhibition “This Land Is …” explores how land—claimed, cultivated, and contested—has shaped American life from before 1776 to the present.
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.
“The Huntington Library is one of the nation’s leading repositories for historical Americana, from presidential and Colonial–era archives to materials on California and the West,” said Sandra Brooke Gordon, Avery Director of the Library. “With these extraordinarily deep and broad collections, The Huntington is uniquely positioned to tell American stories, bringing forward disparate historic voices to enlighten the national conversation.”
The exhibition features maps, photographs, posters, manuscripts, artworks, audiovisual materials, rare books, and more to offer a moving and multifaceted story of American lands and peoples.
Cocurated 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
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.
The Huntington, a world-renowned cultural and educational institution, provides transformative experiences for a community of the curious. Founded in 1919 by Henry E. and Arabella Huntington, it supports research and promotes public engagement through its expansive library, art, and botanical collections. By cultivating dynamic scholarship, creating innovative programs for students and lifelong learners, and sharing its extraordinary resources, The Huntington invites all on a journey of discovery, insight, and connection. Only 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles, The Huntington is located at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California. Learn more at huntington.org.
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
“Both in the Declaration’s time and our own, the ideals of life, liberty, and happiness are intertwined with place,” said Lehtinen. “A view that includes both landscapes and people can reveal new ways of understanding nature and nation, now and for the future.”
“Like the nation’s history, the title ‘This Land Is …’ is open-ended and unfinished,” said Garrett-Davis. “The same land may represent opportunity or dispossession, ownership or exclusion, nourishment or loss. Cycles of harm and repair unfold in both ecological and historical contexts, often sharing language as in the ‘uprooting’ of plants or communities, or in ‘amending’ the soil or a law.”
The exhibition comprises six thematic branches, each of which grafts a physical or ecological phenomenon onto the cultural-historical meanings of the section’s name: Roots (origins and foundations of plants and peoples); Uprootings (removals and migrations); Amendments (transformations to landscapes and laws); Edge Effects (margins or borderlands where two zones meet and overlap); Disturbances (destruction and violence to places and people); and Regenerations (repair and restoration).
Essay Volume
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 Garrett-Davis and Lehtinen, the volume includes a foreword by Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence. 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 … (ISBN: 978-0-87328-274-1, $45) will be distributed worldwide by the University of Pennsylvania Press beginning in June 2026.
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. In addition to an exhibition of the same name, the initiative includes the reinstallation of the Virginia Steele Scott American Galleries of Art; an expansion of “Borderlands,” featuring works by Southern California artists Laura Aguilar, Mercedes Dorame, and Sandy Rodriguez; and Oak Meadow, a renovated garden space connecting the American art galleries to the surrounding gardens, which will open this spring and feature oak trees, the official national tree of the United States.
A suite of public programs will accompany the initiative, fostering civic reflection and cross-generational dialogue. Offerings for 2026 include:
A Why It Matters event on May 14 featuring writer and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams in conversation with President Karen R. Lawrence
The 2026 Shapiro Lecture on June 24, featuring Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and author of Our Declaration (2014) and The Radical Duke (2026), followed by a conversation with Susan Juster, W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research
The first in a series of programs with the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, “American Landmarks: Oaks,” on May 8. The series is presented as part of the LA2026 project, which has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom
A symposium on March 12 titled “Perspectives on Gardens in the American Context” and a research conference in November 2026, held in conjunction with the exhibition
A community festival on June 28 featuring performances, tours, artmaking, and community partner activations for all ages
A youth summit that unfolds over the school year to guide and generate youth-led research, creative, and civic engagement projects designed to shape new American futures
A summer institute and other professional development opportunities for K–12 educators focused on interdisciplinary teaching and curriculum design
Classes and workshops for all ages that allow for deeper learning opportunities and creative engagement
A dedicated webpage provides information on the initiative as well as related programming: huntington.org/this-land-is
This exhibition is generously sponsored by Hahn & Hahn LLP.
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