By: Jacqui Agate | From: Wanderlust Magazine

Across the USA, museums and galleries – from landmark institutions to small-town spots – are marking America’s semiquincentennial with poignant displays covering everything from Indigenous culture to Revolutionary history. Here are the exhibitions worth travelling for in 2026.

Countrywide

 

Americans

August 2025 marked the launch of a nationwide tour of the Smithsonian Institution exhibition Americans, which is set to run for six years. Drawn from a key exhibition at Washington DC’s National Museum of the American Indian and specifically designed for small-town museums, it will travel cross-country through some 20 states, making it to the mountain bolthole of Meeker, Colorado in time for the Semiquincentennial.

The exhibition traces the deep-rooted history of Native Nations in America, focusing on three key narratives: the role of Pocahontas in Jamestown (the first permanent English settlement in America), a Powhatan woman whose story has long been ‘Disneyfied’; the devastating Indian Removal Act of 1830, which saw thousands of Native people displaced from their homelands; and the Battle of Little Bighorn, a clash between the US Army and Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho forces, which resulted in a defining Native victory.

Dates: From August 2025-ongoing

San Antonio, Texas

Somos Americanos: Our American Story, Mexican American Civil Rights Institute

The city’s identity has long been shaped by its rich Mexican-American culture, with more than two-thirds of residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino. From July, visitors can explore a new exhibition at the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute celebrating the lives and civic contributions of Mexican Americans across the USA. Exhibits focus on the ways Mexican Americans have served their country, from military conflicts to ongoing fights for civil rights and social justice.

Dates: From July 2026

Scred Trails and Silent Allies: Native Vaqueros and the Cattle Trail to Revolution, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

Detailed material evidence – from topographical images to centuries-old maps – has been used to trace the historic cattle trails that played a key role in Spanish colonial supply networks during the American Revolution. Spread across the Spanish colonial missions of San Antonio, the exhibition – presented by American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions organisation – highlights the often-sidelined lives and labours of Indigenous vaqueros (cowboys) and ranchers during the era of the American Revolution.

Dates: Opening autumn 2026

Tejano Legacy: Another American Origin Story, Briscoe Western Art Museum

The Briscoe Western Art Museum is filled with treasures from Indigenous artworks to evocative paintings of sun-scorched Western landscapes. And a new exhibition this year turns its focus to Tejano identity, exploring the origins, heritage and cultural traditions of Texans of Mexican descent.

Dates: From 24 July 2026