The MFA Boston Reimagines a First-Floor Wing for America’s Big Birthday
The world-class institution marks America’s 250th anniversary with a reinstallation that places makers, materials, and meaning at the center of the story.
Part of the furniture collection in the revived wing, this striking mid-18th-century desk and bookcase is made of inlaid woods and incised and painted bone, with mace, gold, polychrome paint, and metal hardware. / Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund
This article is from the spring 2026 issue of Boston Home. Sign up here to receive a subscription.
In June, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will debut a sweeping reinstallation of its 18th-century Art of the Americas galleries—timed to coincide with the nation’s 250th anniversary of independence on July 4. Titled America at 250, the reimagined presentation invites visitors to reconsider how artists, artisans, and objects helped shape the political, cultural, and social ideas of a revolutionary era that continues to resonate today.
Marking the first reinstallation of the first level of the Art of the Americas Wing since its opening in 2010, the project reflects both evolving scholarship and the significant growth of the MFA’s collection over the past 15 years. Long recognized as one of the most comprehensive holdings of American art in the world, the collection has expanded to encompass a broader range of works from across North, Central, and South America, including Indigenous and island nations—allowing for a more expansive and inclusive understanding of the Americas.
Thomas Sully’s 1819 The Passage of the Delaware, a staple of the MFA Boston’s collection. / Public domain
Eight newly conceived galleries explore themes of resistance, liberty, labor, identity, home, family, and myth-making through works that range from monumental history paintings to exquisitely crafted furniture, silver, and needlework. Highlights include Thomas Sully’s dramatic The Passage of the Delaware (1819), a focused gallery devoted to John Singleton Copley, and installations that center communities of makers and the global histories behind everyday commodities such as tea, coffee, and chocolate.
The galleries will be unveiled during the MFA’s annual Juneteenth Open House as part of a two-day America at 250 celebration, offering free admission to Massachusetts residents alongside special programming. Together, the reinstallation reframes the 18th century not as a fixed past, but as a living foundation—one that continues to shape conversations about nationhood, power, and belonging today.
First published in the print edition of Boston Home’s Spring 2026 issue, with the headline “Crafting a Nation.”
