Slavery Exhibition at President’s House Site

On July 15, 2026, a new version of the slavery exhibition was reinstalled at the President's House site in Philadelphia, where President George Washington resided and kept enslaved people in the 1790s. The federal government replaced the original panels, which had been in place since 2010 and detailed the lives of nine enslaved individuals.

The replacement exhibit, implemented under an executive order from the Trump administration in 2025, aims to focus on the "greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people" and avoid information that might "disparage Americans past or living." Critics, including Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and various historians, argue that the new panels sanitize and erase darker aspects of American history by omitting some critical details previously included. While the new panels still cover enslaved people, the abolitionist movement, and the Constitution's treatment of slavery, they no longer feature elements such as a map of slave trade routes, a timeline on slavery, or headlines like "The Dirty Business of Slavery." The city of Philadelphia had legally challenged the removal of the original panels but a federal appeals court ruled that the work could continue.