Moments That Made US

Current Exhibition

Nov 21, 2025 to Oct 18, 2026

Our story was never inevitable. We shaped it at every turn.

A marquee exhibition organized by History Colorado featuring fifty artifacts that witnessed the events that shaped the United States, Moments That Made US assembles treasures from American History rarely seen together. Visitors will see artifacts spanning eight centuries, drawn from Mesa Verde, Jamestown, Valley Forge, Appomattox Court House, Washington, DC, Ebbets Field, the moon, and more. In each of these turning points, visitors will encounter different perspectives on the struggles, triumphs, setbacks, and resilience that made this nation.

Painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware River — Title: Washington Crossing the Delaware
Artist: Emanuel Leutze (American, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1816–1868 Washington, D.C.)
Date: 1851
Culture: American
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 149 x 255 in. (378.5 x 647.7 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897
Object Number: 97.34

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Portrait of Dorothea Lange with her two children leaning on her shoulders facing away from the camera. — Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California. United States Nipomo San Luis Obispo County California, 1936. March. Photograph

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.

Elizabeth Eckford walks unbothered in a dress and sunglasses despite the hostile screams and stares of fellow students in the background. — Elizabeth Eckford ignores the hostile screams and stares of fellow students on her first day of school, 6th September 1957. She was one of the nine African -American students whose integration into Little Rock's Central High School was ordered by a Federal Court following legal action by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Getty Images. Bettman

Buzz Aldrin in a space suit on the moon next to an American Flag — Moon Landing, Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin with flag

NASA

Wong Kim Ark portrait black and white photo. — Wong Kim Ark identification photo, around 1904.

Courtesy National Archives

Jackie Robinson swinging with a bat — Jackie Robinson

Courtesy of the Marshall Fogel Collection

A family of 6 stand next to 2 horses in front of a sod house On its roof is a white calf. — *Sylvester Rawding family in front of sod house, north of Sargent, Custer County, Nebraska*, Solomon D. Butcher, 1886.

Courtesy Library of Congress

Union Soldier (Sgt. Henry F. Steward) standing in uniform. — A twenty-three-year-old farmer from Adrian, Michigan, Henry Steward enlisted on 4 April 1863 and was mustered in on 23 April. A non-commissioned officer, as were all Black officers, Steward was actively engaged in the recruiting of soldiers for the regiment. He died of disease at the regimental hospital on Morris Island, South Carolina, on 27 September 1863, and his estate was paid a $50 state bounty.

Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society

Joseph Eaton in uniform, stand in his open top military jeep and smiles at the camera. — *Joseph Eaton poses in his jeep while en route to Theresienstadt*, 1945.

Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Suffragist Inez Milholland handing pamphlets to a rowdy group of men. — Inez Milholland (1886-1916), selling Feminist papers to bystanders at Suffragette parade in New York City. Ca.1913-16.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr speaks into a microphone with a crowd behind him. — American Religious and Civil Rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929 - 1968) gives his "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd before the Lincoln Memorial during the Freedom March in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. The widely quoted speech became one of his most famous.

Getty Images. Bettman

Together, three New York fireman raise an American flag near the still smoking rubble of the World Trade Center . — Sep 11, 2001; New York City, New York, USA; Three NYC firemen, George Johnson and Dan McWilliams and Bill Eisengrein raise an American flag near the rubble of the World Trade Center. Taken at 5:01 PM on September 11th.

© Thomas E. Franklin – USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A large group of protesters march in the street. Three of them carry a banner reading "Boycott Lettuce" — *Lettuce boycott march in Boulder*

Juan Espinosa, 1972. History Colorado, 2016.87.21

Huei Tlamahuiçoltica page with image of Our Lady of Guadalupe printed on it. — *Huei Tlamahuiçoltica*, around 1649.

Public Domain

A group of soldiers, part of the 45th Infantry: 36th Division Code Talkers stand in a group of 6 and look seriously at the camera. — *45th Infantry: 36th Division Code Talkers*, WWI, 1918.

Courtesy Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County

We celebrate hope, unity, and democracy, and we recognize dark hours of war, division, and mourning. History doesn't "just happen." In a world of possibilities, how we got to now is full of twists and turns.

Gwendolyn Lockman, PhD, Senior Exhibition Developer & Historian

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