Bannered Heroes: Celebrating Pennsylvania’s African American Veterans

Ground Floor

Over the past two centuries, many African Americans have served Pennsylvania and the nation with distinction in the U.S. Armed Forces. This exhibit highlights twelve such individuals with ties to Pennsylvania, but it is intended as a tribute to all of the Commonwealth’s African American veterans. This display is presented by Beta Pie Boulé, the Harrisburg chapter of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (the Boulé).

Revolutionary Things: Objects from the Collection

first Floor

Designed to coincide with the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, this special exhibit brings together a wide range of objects that testify to Pennsylvania’s outsized role in the American Revolution, as well as its subsequent commemoration of this turning point period in both Pennsylvania and American history.

Some of the objects on display have a documented history of use from that revolutionary time and are very rare. Others reflect the ways in which later generations of Pennsylvanians remembered, imagined, and celebrated the nation’s founding and the Keystone State’s central role in it.

Illuminating Independence

first floor

Game Changers: PA Women Who Made History

First floor

This display celebrates women from across the state representing diverse fields including education, science, business, human rights advocacy, and the arts- and details the contributions they made as well as the challenges they faced in their lifetimes.

Horse2Auto: A Transportation Revolution

second floor

Automobiles began appearing on Pennsylvania’s roads in the late 1800s, but the transition away from horses – the then-dominant mode of personal transport – did not happening quickly, or evenly. For more than a quarter century, cars shared the road with horse-drawn vehicles. This display explores the transition from horse to automobile through the history of three vehicles from Pennsylvania’s last transportation revolution.