RR kicks off July 4th festivities with 1776 exhibit

RIO RANCHO

RR kicks off July 4th festivities with 1776 exhibit

The exhibit, from the N.Y.-based Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, will be on display until Sept. 12

RIO RANCHO — The Declaration of Independence may be an American original, but its influence has shaped countries around the world.

That is one of the overarching messages of a new exhibit, "Declaration 1776: The Big Bang of Modern Democracy," at the Loma Colorado Main Library, 755 Loma Colorado Blvd. in Rio Rancho.

The exhibit, created by the New York-based nonprofit Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, was unveiled on July 1 and is on display until Sept. 12.

Jason Shoup, director of library and information services for the city of Rio Rancho, said he hopes residents of all ages learn about the impact the declaration had on the world.

"As Americans, we cherish it as one of our founding documents created by our Founding Fathers, but what that document was was bigger than just our country, because it really did have this rippling impact on the whole world, as well as on the rest of U.S. history," Shoup said.

The installation of the exhibit came ahead of America's semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, which has sparked a higher interest in July 4. The library and exhibit will be open on the holiday from 1-4 p.m. before the city hosts an Independence Day celebration.

"It seemed like the perfect exhibit to get now for this event and this point in American history," Shoup said. "I think it's important because we want to help and join in the celebration, one; and we know that people are likely to be more interested in the topic right now, because there's a lot more buzz in the air and in the media about it. So it seemed like a good time to draw a bigger crowd to an exhibit."

The exhibit's seven panels each touch on a different facet of the declaration's impact. The first panel said that in crafting the declaration, the Founding Fathers "unleashed an open-ended driving force that would shape modern history."

Throughout the world, "other countries have declared independence using the Declaration of 1776 as a model," the first panel stated. Examples include Haitian independence in 1804, Cartagena in 1811 and Liberia in 1848, according to the third panel.

The sixth panel, titled "The Fall of Empires and the Proliferation of Independent Countries," shows how other countries "turned to the American declaration as a model for announcing their liberation." Countries include Vietnam's independence from France in 1945, India's independence from England in 1947 and Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the panel stated.

Shoup also pointed to the exhibit's other panels, including one on the development of women's rights in the U.S. It includes a quote from the nation's second first lady, Abigail Adams, but also lesser-known figures, such as Adella Hunt Logan, a 19th- and 20th-century Black educator who fought for African American women's suffrage.

Molly Riddick, curatorial coordinator at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, wrote in an email that Rio Rancho was among the first organizations to indicate interest in showing the exhibit since its launch in June 2025. The city is the only entity in New Mexico to host the exhibit and one of only about a dozen U.S. cities to present it. Riddick added that Rio Rancho's interest in the exhibit is refreshing since the Institute mostly caters to schools.

"It's really opened our eyes to the potential of our exhibitions beyond classrooms," Riddick said.

On Wednesday at the library, patrons of all ages — from seniors to young moms with baby cradles — were seen viewing the exhibit. Rio Rancho resident Megan Napier and her children, Aubrey, Daniel and Steven, were among them.

"Girl power!" said Aubrey, pointing to the panel on women's rights.

Steve described the display as a nice exhibit with a good amount of historical photos.

Napier said she liked the exhibit's focus on how the Declaration of Independence has impacted other parts of the world.

"That's important for the kids because I think it makes them value and appreciate the responsibilities we have as Americans — how people look to our example for how we exercise our freedoms," she said.