United States Diplomacy: From Its Beginnings to Today
Celebrating diplomatic accomplishments throughout America’s 250-year history.
Created with support from the Una Chapman Cox Foundation, this exhibit highlights the important role that diplomacy has played across American history. It begins with the Revolutionary War, when Benjamin Franklin – America’s first diplomat – was dispatched to Paris to secure the French military assistance that proved critical to winning our independence. It takes visitors through how diplomats protected our young republic and then helped expand both our borders and our global trade.
In the 20th century, it captures diplomats’ role in navigating two World Wars and in building an international system that helped us win the Cold War. It concludes with diplomats confronting 21st century challenges such as transnational terrorism, technology advances, climate change, environmental degradation and global health/pandemics.
What You’ll See
These three panels represent just a small part of the full 21-panel exhibition. Together, they highlight how American diplomacy has evolved across different eras, challenges, and global relationships. View the full exhibit content here.
Inside the Exhibit
The exhibit has been displayed in high school and university classrooms, libraries, atriums, and conference venues in more than a dozen communities across the country as well as at the State Department, and the U.S. Army War College.
If you are interested in hosting the mobile exhibit, which has appeared across the country from Florida to Oregon and Alabama to Wisconsin, please reach out to us at [email protected]. We will be happy to work with you to make it possible.