Moments That Made US

Current Exhibition

Nov 21, 2025 to Oct 18, 2026

Our story was never inevitable. We shaped it at every turn.

Experience the struggles, triumphs, and resilience of the people who shaped the United States, and the turning points that changed everything.

An array of more than fifty treasures never before gathered together in the West offers the chance to explore eight hundred years of American history.

See the things that saw it all: The spurs George Washington wore during the revolutionary winter at Valley Forge. The inkwell in which generals dipped their pens to sign the terms ending the Civil War. The bat Jackie Robinson swung as a Brooklyn Dodger and the first African American Major League Baseball player. The tape recorder that added to the mystery of President Richard Nixon’s many secrets during the Watergate investigation.

Much of what you’ll encounter is gathered in Colorado for the very first time – bringing you a rare opportunity to get up close with the extraordinary stories and unique perspectives that made our country what it is today.

1 guests take a photo of the Great Migration display and drum set at the exhibition.

Painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware River — Title: Washington Crossing the Delaware
Artist: Emanuel Leutze (American, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1816–1868 Washington, D.C.)
Date: 1851
Culture: American
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 149 x 255 in. (378.5 x 647.7 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897
Object Number: 97.34

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Portrait of Dorothea Lange with her two children leaning on her shoulders facing away from the camera. — Lange, Dorothea, photographer. Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California. United States Nipomo San Luis Obispo County California, 1936. March. Photograph

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.

Elizabeth Eckford walks unbothered in a dress and sunglasses despite the hostile screams and stares of fellow students in the background. — Elizabeth Eckford ignores the hostile screams and stares of fellow students on her first day of school, 6th September 1957. She was one of the nine African -American students whose integration into Little Rock's Central High School was ordered by a Federal Court following legal action by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Getty Images. Bettman

An older female guests reads a label in front of Jackie Robinson's historic baseball bat.

Buzz Aldrin in a space suit on the moon next to an American Flag — Moon Landing, Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin with flag

NASA

Jackie Robinson swinging with a bat — Jackie Robinson

Courtesy of the Marshall Fogel Collection

Union Soldier (Sgt. Henry F. Steward) standing in uniform. — A twenty-three-year-old farmer from Adrian, Michigan, Henry Steward enlisted on 4 April 1863 and was mustered in on 23 April. A non-commissioned officer, as were all Black officers, Steward was actively engaged in the recruiting of soldiers for the regiment. He died of disease at the regimental hospital on Morris Island, South Carolina, on 27 September 1863, and his estate was paid a $50 state bounty.

Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society

D-Day display at Moments that Made US exhibition

Joseph Eaton in uniform, stand in his open top military jeep and smiles at the camera. — *Joseph Eaton poses in his jeep while en route to Theresienstadt*, 1945.

Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Suffragist Inez Milholland handing pamphlets to a rowdy group of men. — Inez Milholland (1886-1916), selling Feminist papers to bystanders at Suffragette parade in New York City. Ca.1913-16.

A group of guests read and discuss the display describing the Ku Klux Klan in the exhibition.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr speaks into a microphone with a crowd behind him. — American Religious and Civil Rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929 - 1968) gives his "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd before the Lincoln Memorial during the Freedom March in Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. The widely quoted speech became one of his most famous.

Getty Images. Bettman

Together, three New York fireman raise an American flag near the still smoking rubble of the World Trade Center . — Sep 11, 2001; New York City, New York, USA; Three NYC firemen, George Johnson and Dan McWilliams and Bill Eisengrein raise an American flag near the rubble of the World Trade Center. Taken at 5:01 PM on September 11th.

© Thomas E. Franklin – USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

A woman reads a book on display at Moments that Made US

Huei Tlamahuiçoltica page with image of Our Lady of Guadalupe printed on it. — *Huei Tlamahuiçoltica*, around 1649.

Public Domain

A group of soldiers, part of the 45th Infantry: 36th Division Code Talkers stand in a group of 6 and look seriously at the camera. — *45th Infantry: 36th Division Code Talkers*, WWI, 1918.

Courtesy Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County

Interior of Moments that made US exhibition

A large group of protesters march in the street. Three of them carry a banner reading "Boycott Lettuce" — *Lettuce boycott march in Boulder*

Juan Espinosa, 1972. History Colorado, 2016.87.21

We celebrate hope, unity, and democracy, and we recognize dark hours of war, division, and mourning. History doesn't "just happen." In a world of possibilities, how we got to now is full of twists and turns.

Gwendolyn Lockman, PhD, Senior Exhibition Developer & Historian

FirstBank began providing banking services in 1963. Today, it’s known as an industry leader in digital banking. It has grown to be one of the top-performing and largest privately held banks in the United States. FirstBank offers a variety of consumer deposit accounts, home equity loans, mortgages, rental property loans, and a full range of commercial banking services, including business financing, commercial real estate loans, treasury management, and more. Since 2000, FirstBank has been recognized as a top corporate philanthropist, contributing more than $100 million and thousands of volunteer hours to charitable organizations. For more information, visit www.efirstbank.com. Member FDIC.