Return to "The Land of Genuine Freedom": The 200th Anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s Farewell Tour of America, 1824-1825

August 2024 will mark the two hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Marquis de Lafayette’s year-long farewell tour of America. As the “nation’s guest”, Lafayette attended hundreds of parades, balls, dinners, and other celebrations held throughout the young nation in his honor. During his travels he greeted and met thousands of Americans eager to shake his hand or even catch a glimpse of him.

Opening in the Fall of 2024, the Return to “The Land of Genuine Freedom” exhibit will highlight the material culture of Lafayette’s farewell tour, showcasing items from Lafayette College Libraries Special Collections and College Archives’ holdings of Marquis de Lafayette memorabilia. Textiles, metalware, jewelry, ceramics, metals, ribbons, glassware, broadsides and ephemera, sheet music, and personal accessories will be on display at the Williams Center Gallery and Skillman Library. Also on display will be a letter newly acquired by Lafayette Libraries Special Collections and College Archives written by the Marquis de Lafayette to his friend General Marinus Willett in May of 1824, just a few months before sailing to America for his final tour of “the land of genuine freedom.”