As the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding looms next year, officials at the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution and the D.C. tourism industry outlined plans Tuesday to celebrate the semiquincentennial.

“Only in D.C. can you see the actual Declaration of Independence, and we will have by far the best celebration of the 250th in America,” said Elliott L. Ferguson II, president and chief executive of Destination DC.

Organizers said commemorations will look to strike the balance between celebrating the nation’s founding ideals while recognizing historic events that kept many Americans from having access to those very freedoms.

For the first time since the 1950s, the National Archives will add to the Charters of Freedom display in the Rotunda, which includes the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, said Archivist of the United States Colleen J. Shogan.

Archivists will put on exhibit the 19th Amendment, which cemented the right to vote for women, in March 2026 alongside the other founding documents, Shogan said. The Emancipation Proclamation will be exhibited in January of next year.

“Both of these documents are milestone documents that mark the beginning of the fulfillment of the principles contained in the Declaration of Independence,” Shogan said. “They help to tell a more complete history of the United States of America.”

Officials on Tuesday touted the city’s many historical treasures and memorials, which they hope will draw tourism dollars throughout 2026. Planning this year will feature ways to fill hotels and restaurants with patriotic celebrators and visitors from abroad, Ferguson said.

National Museum of American History curators will open “In Pursuit of Life Liberty and Happiness” in spring of 2026, which will feature “250 objects vital to American history,” said Lisa Sasaki, deputy undersecretary of special projects at the Smithsonian Institution.

To stay in theme, the new exhibit will feature the desk Thomas Jefferson used to write the Declaration of Independence, Sasaki said. Organizers are planning events venues across the city, Sasaki said, but announced plans to host a month-long festival called “Of the People,” which will expand on the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival and incorporate celebrations from the states and U.S. territories.

“Together we can foster connections and forge a path forward towards our shared future, which is our theme for the 250th,” Sasaki said.

Renovations and upgrades to the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials will reopen on the National Mall later this year and early next, according to Catherine Townsend, president and CEO of the Trust for the National Mall. Plans are underway to restore fountains and beautify Lafayette Square, she said.

Officials have plans, but not full funding, to revamp the Sylvan Theater at the base of the Washington Monument as well as Constitution Gardens and a memorial to the Declaration’s signers.

“Originally built as a gift to the nation in the bicentennial, we are ready to break ground on this incredible project - once fundraising is complete - to make this a new gift to the nation,” Townsend said.

In addition to planning downtown, celebratory panels are meeting across the country under America250, the national semiquincentennial commission legislated by Congress. America250 launched its nationwide effort on July 4, 2023 to organize and formalize commemorations in the 50 states as well as D.C.

Earlier this month, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced the formation of the DC250 commission tasked with communicating with residents to create celebrations not just for the city but the nation, she said.

Commission appointee and former D.C. Council member Charlene Drew Jarvis said earlier this month that she welcomed the “extraordinary opportunity to lend a voice to the celebration” and expects the commission to seek a diverse array of voices that across genders, generations and backgrounds.

“Woman have earned their place in many places in the society that was not true when we celebrated the bicentennial, that’s a good thing,” Jarvis said. “People of color, of all colors, are a part of the leadership of the country in many ways, in business and in politics.

“We want to make sure we pick up the zeitgeist what was happening at that time and then celebrate a country that has come very far from that day.”