Gallery Talk- The Politics of Declaring Independence

Katlyn Carter, Associate Professor, Department of History at the University of Notre Dame, will present a Gallery Talk entitled "The Politics of Declaring Independence", on Thursday, April 2 at 11 am at the Beardsley Discovery Center. As the American colonists weighed whether to declare their independence from the British Empire in 1776, they knew they would need public opinion on their side in order to give meaning to their declaration and make independence a reality. This talk will cover how the Continental Congress tried to shape and respond to Americans' opinions, the audiences they had in mind when writing the Declaration of Independence, and how our views of this founding document have changed over time.

Gallery Talks feature a twenty-minute discussion on an object/artwork within the Ruthmere collection or a person or event in local history. Our Gallery Talks are free and open to the public.