Thomas H. Keels surveys the buildings and landmarks of the 1976 Bicentennial of American Independence in this final installment of a three-part series

As Philadelphia gears up for the Semiquincentennial, David Owen Bell consults the work of historians, scholars, and journalists to reveal a troubled picture of past patriotic celebrations

Ella Comberg explores the failed plan that would have brought an international contemporary art event to the city during the Bicentennial

Harry K. waxes nostalgic about Independence, a 28-minute John Huston film about the American Revolutionary War that has been playing at Independence National Historical Park since the Bicentennial

The fatal outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease this summer in South Bronx has taken the lives of 12 New Yorkers. Karen Chernick revisits the bacteria’s history with the first identified epidemic at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel on Broad Street

A new public observation deck is opening this summer on the 57th floor of One Liberty Place and Harry K. couldn’t be more pleased. Join him in the glass elevator to the top of the old Penn Mutual building as he evokes the Spirit of ’76

Thought all the vestiges of the Bicentennial were gone? Not this–a nearly 40 year old music series at Laurel Hill Mansion

Faded murals spotted in Kensington and Fishtown recall Philadelphia’s bungled Bicentennial celebration in 1976.