Current Exhibitions at Picker

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence asserted that a people could claim the authority to govern themselves. Two hundred and fifty years later, that radical proposition still reverberates—debated, challenged, and reinterpreted across generations. This exhibition examines one of the most nimble forms of expression in that ongoing dialogue: the publicly placed sticker.  Like the printed broadsides and pamphlets that circulated in the late eighteenth century—most famously Thomas Paine’s Common Sense—stickers operate as accessible, reproducible forms of public persuasion, designed to move ideas beyond formal institutions and into daily life.

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of independence, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how freedom has been defined, defended, denied, and demanded across time. From early twentieth-century pro-labor “stickerettes” and 1960s-era anti-war slogans to contemporary calls for racial justice, Indigenous sovereignty, gender equality, environmental protection, and immigrant rights, the stickers gathered here demonstrate that independence has never been a static achievement. 

At the same time, the language of independence is not uniquely American. Across the globe, movements for self-determination have used adhesive graphics to assert autonomy and resist oppression. By placing U.S.-based stickers in conversation with international examples, the exhibition situates the anniversary within a wider history of struggles over power, rights, and belonging.

The original stickers in this exhibition were intended for the streets, not a museum. And yet, what they have lost in immediacy, they have gained in testimony: proof for future generations that someone, somewhere, cared enough to draw or print a handful of stickers—or a thousand—and believed that even the smallest act might help change the world.

Curated by Catherine Tedford, People’s History Archive and Oliver Baudach, Hatch Kingdom Sticker Museum.

Exhibition available for class visits beginning August 27, 2026.

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 5:30 p.m.