Events at Museum of Jersey City History and Library to Commemorate Nation’s 250th Birthday
- Museum Jersey City History
- May 7
- 3 min read
May 7, 2026 by Ron Leir
Like other entities of its kind, the Museum of Jersey City History is marshaling its forces to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary.
But do not expect booming cannons or elaborate spectacles to highlight the opening salvo.
The observance — dubbed “The Enduring Promise: The Declaration of Independence at 250” — will begin Friday with a peaceful handover by the Stevens Institute of Technology of a bicentennial scroll and other memorabilia originally collected by the Hudson County Bicentennial Committee.
Those materials from the festivities of 1976 — stored at Stevens for the past 25 years — will be on loan to the museum as part of its projected six-month Enduring Promise exhibit before its permanent transfer to the New Jersey Room at the main branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library, said Michael Ehrmann, vice president of the museum board of directors.
“We believe this is a great way to tie together different phases in American history,” Ehrmann said.
Museum staff and volunteers are preparing the museum at 298 Academy Street for the May 20 opening of the exhibit, with an opening-night reception slated for May 21.
These images are a small sample of the material to be used in the exhibition to examine public discourse on the rights first enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. They are drawn from a wide variety of publications and the internet.
Highlighting the multi-media exhibit will be the use of two newly acquired hologram projectors – purchased with a combination of public grants and private donations totaling $15,000.
The exhibit’s focus, Ehrmann said, will be “primarily a celebration of the Declaration of Independence and a review of the progress and problems in carrying out the promises first made in that Declaration.”
Museum Board President James Dievler said the museum, graced with the images conveyed by the projectors and supplemented by actors’ voices, was “excited to be including ‘living’ elements to this important exhibition.”
The holograms, Dievler said, “will allow us to have Thomas Jefferson reciting the Declaration of Independence as visitors enter the museum, and then, upstairs, museumgoers will encounter [American suffragist and women’s rights activist] Alice Paul, [Jersey City physician, Black activist and founder of Lafayette Presbyterian Church] Dr. George Cannon, [Jersey City-born transgender celebrity in the New York ball culture scene] Venus Xtravaganza, and others who were engaged in making sure that the Declaration’s words were fulfilled for all.”
The exhibit “will focus on the meaning of the words equality, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness throughout 250 years and especially today for people in Jersey City,” Dievler said. And, he added, visitors will be invited to “share their thoughts on video for display on monitors in the exhibition.”
A “liberty corner” will examine the Statue of Liberty “and how it has been represented over the years,” Dievler said.
That portion of the exhibit will include a video recording of Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty State Park, reading an essay his father, the late City Councilman Morris Pesi, wrote about the statue on its centennial in 1986. “This will be included along with other voices sharing their thoughts on liberty and equality,” Dievler said.
The Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, meanwhile, is partnering with the New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Free Public Library to unveil its own take on the nation’s bicentennial with the lecture series “History on the Hudson: 250 Years of Hudson County History.” The series will run from spring through summer 2026.
During that time, Library Director Terry Hill said, “We will spend the first Thursday evening [of each month] with a speaker on a wide range of Hudson County topics across our nation’s first 250 years.”
The program debuts Thursday with speaker Michael Maring discussing George Affuso, a onetime North Bergen police officer who became known as a “beer-running kingpin” during Prohibition and was killed in a shootout that remains unsolved.
Next up will be author John Beekman speaking on “The Revolutionary Generation and the Roots of Jersey City” at 6:30 p.m. June 4.
For a complete schedule of upcoming speakers, visit the JCFPL website. Registration is encouraged.
Editor’s note: The address of the Museum of Jersey City History and the date of the opening-night reception were corrected at 9:45 p.m. on May 7, 2026, after they were misstated in a previous version of the article. The Jersey City Times regrets the errors.
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