Galesville Heritage Society is partnering with Chesapeake Crossroads Heritage Area in a nationwide Hawai‘i America250 Commission initiative for a synchronized reading of the Declaration of Independence.

• Location: Galesville Heritage Museum Lawn

• Gathering: 5:30 pm

• Reading: 6:00 pm

• Refreshments & Copies of Declaration of Independence to be provided

Community members are invited to take part in this special public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

On July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon delivered the first public reading of the Declaration in the State House Yard—now Independence Square—in Philadelphia. For many colonists, it was the first time they heard the revolutionary promises of equality, unalienable rights, and self-governance that would become the foundation of a new nation. In an era when many people could not easily access newspapers or read for themselves, public readings served as a vital means of communicating these transformative ideas.

Today, 250 years later, CCHA is encouraging communities throughout Annapolis and Anne Arundel County to gather friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family members to commemorate this historic moment through a collective public reading.

Together, we will commemorate and recreate the moment when the Declaration was first read aloud throughout the colonies on July 8, 1776.