250 Years of American Independence: The Founders Museum

Part one: A review of the White House series marking the anniversary of America’s freedom.

Two of America's founding fathers: Thomas Jefferson (L) and Alexander Hamilton. The White House

On July 4, 2026, America will celebrate its most important historical milestone: 250 years of independence. So the White House has unveiled two video-series to mark this anniversary and revive a love for America’s history. Part 1 of this two-part review highlights “The Founders Museum.”

The White House presents “The Founders Museum” in partnership with nonprofit PragerU and the U.S. Department of Education. Housed in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, it features original portraits and compelling digital storytelling, including AI-enabled, simulated-speaking videoclips of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence and six ladies who participated in the American Revolution. Visitors who scan the provided QR codes with their phones can watch the portraits come to life and hear great patriots tell their stories.

Packaged for public use, the museum’s lively content allows users around the world to recreate this exhibit. It could be presented at an American embassy event or at the headquarters of an American company, or at schools, universities, churches, and community spaces. The clips are also on YouTube.

In one video, Thomas Jefferson speaks of “the weight of centuries” on his shoulders, with every word like a step into the unknown, a “torch lit for posterity.” He may have spoken “softly” but had nothing less than “grand plans” for the nation; as president, he nearly doubled its size with the Louisiana Purchase because westward expansion was vital for the nation’s health and prosperity.

Look at the Founding Fathers’ backgrounds. There are more typical profiles for politicians or legislators: lawyer, businessman, physician, surgeon, judge, professor, and diplomat. At another level, there are rather uncommon ones: printer, planter, musician, writer, poet, soldier, clergyman, and shopkeeper. There is even an iron-furnace worker and a sea captain. This made for a staggering range of life experiences that were gathered together in that one room to sign the Declaration.

Sure, the Declaration drew on the youthful vigor and innovation of some signers (aged below 40), but it was tempered by the experience and wisdom of many others (aged above 40), who’d witnessed enough of history themselves to have made history of their own.

The Ladies

Martha Washington calls herself “wife, mother, patriot.” While her husband led armies, she traveled great distances and endured great discomforts to remind soldiers about what they were fighting for. She didn’t fight with weapons but with words, work, presence and quiet prayers. “Freedom,” she clarifies, “is not the burden of soldiers alone. It belongs to all of us.”

Betsy Ross, “the woman who stitched the first American flag,” says she fought not with muskets and powder but with needle and thread.

Repeatedly, the women and men featured shine a spotlight on the price of freedom. Their patriotism cost several of them their wealth, homes, reputations, professions, and businesses; still others suffered displacement or imprisonment. That’s a reminder: Contemporary freedoms don’t come without sacrifices.

Astutely Adapted AI

Mimicking the soft lighting of each painting, each videoclip starts with a close-up of the still, framed portrait. As the historical figure speaks, the moments they mention fade in and out in the background. Finally, the moving image returns to its still form, as if hinting that it’s up to audiences to continue, not just cherish, the legacy of character, courage, and conviction of those who’ve gone before them.

Striking a cautionary note, Jefferson warns, “We must guard liberty with learning, for freedom depends not on force, but on the cultivation of an enlightened mind.” Richard Stockton reminds those “who inherit liberty” that it isn’t forged in comfort but in trial, and not kept by ease, but by resolve. John Hancock, the first signer, adds, “Liberty is not given, it is claimed. And kept.” Benjamin Franklin concludes, “My work is done, the future is yours.”

John Adams proudly admits he didn’t mind being “disliked,” as long he told the truth, because “facts do not care about our feelings.” So, during those momentous debates he “dared to speak when others hesitated” and stood on principle even when it cost him popularity.

The exhibit isn’t a White House carte blanche to use AI anywhere, anyhow. Instead, it’s meant to show that, for all the very real dangers of its abuse, there are safe, healthy ways to use AI.

First, these depictions draw on verifiable truth; they don’t mix fact with fiction. Anyone, not just historians, can cross-reference what passes for screenwriting here, with what the Founders said, meant, and did.

Second, while creative license is indispensable when simulating voices, gestures, pauses, emphasis, and intonation, it’s supposed to add to (not detract from) public curiosity about and understanding of freedom.

Here, it does. It’s not too different from honest filmmakers mobilizing actors, makeup, and costumes for a biopic or documentary, as long as they are true to the spirit and the letter of the life story they’re telling.

Third, while children and teens may find these compact videoclips particularly fun and appealing, they’re meant also to encourage serious study of relevant written work. Think about it. The signers had to use quill and parchment, forcing them to reflect carefully on their choice of words. That’s a call, in the delete-backspace-cut-and-paste age, to ponder the power of words before they’re typed or spoken.

It may be a while before AI pulls off on-screen characters that stand-in convincingly for real people. Here AI-enabled looks and smiles don’t quite approach the warmth and intimacy of human-enabled animation, let alone feature films with human actors.

Humanity at Its Best

At least for now, it’s clear that only humans know that a feeling is more than the sum of its parts, a smile is more than a flash of teeth, an emotion is more than a raised eyebrow, a sparkling eye, or a pursed lip. At their most sincere, facial gestures betray emotions, they don’t cause it. Rather, unseen emotions organically conjure seen gestures. Still, when AI-enabled depictions are powered by integrity, they can be useful starting points to spark interest and trigger deeper learning.

At the launch of the museum exhibit, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said it’s one thing to read the Declaration “as every student should,” but quite another to grasp why 56 men once “risked everything for what it said.” To her, patriotic education isn’t propaganda with blind allegiance to the government; if anything, the Revolution embodied the opposite of blind allegiance.

McMahon clarified, “Real patriotic education means that just as our Founders loved and honored America, so we should honor them while deeply learning and earnestly debating, still, their ideas.”

PragerU CEO Marissa Streit added, “We’re going to remember our nation’s history. And it’s really going to matter. We’re not going to let anybody have a nation with amnesia.”

Part two of this two-part review highlights the video-series “The Story of America,” a White House partnership with Hillsdale College.

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