As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, a new exhibition in Paris invites visitors to reconsider the figures who shaped the ideals of liberty, democracy, and transatlantic cooperation that continue to influence both nations today.
Now on view at the National Archives Museum in Paris through July 14, 2026, Lafayette between France and America: History and Legend shines a spotlight on Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834), the French aristocrat and military leader celebrated as the “Hero of Two Worlds” for his enduring impact on both American and French history. At just 19 years old, Lafayette volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence, forging a close friendship with George Washington and rising to the rank of major general in the Continental Army. Following the American Revolution, he returned to France, where he became a key figure in the early years of the French Revolution, advocated for constitutional government, opposed Napoleon’s return to power in 1815, and later helped pave the way for the July Monarchy in 1830. Through manuscripts, portraits, personal memoirs, books, artwork, prints and historic documents, the exhibition traces Lafayette’s remarkable journey across two revolutions and explores his lasting influence on the democratic ideals that shaped the modern world. Among the highlights is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, including an early draft authored by Lafayette in consultation with Thomas Jefferson and presented to the French National Assembly on July 11, 1789.
The exhibition brings together materials from the National Archives, Lafayette College’s Skillman Library Special Collections and College Archives, the Williams Center for the Arts Galleries, the Chambrun Foundation, the Musée Carnavalet and other leading French institutions. At the heart of the project is Professor Olga Anna Duhl, who serves as chair of Lafayette College’s Exhibition Scientific Committee, co-curator, bilingual catalog co-editor and author, and symposium co-organizer. Duhl is the Oliver Edwin Williams Professor of Languages and founder and co-chair of the Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies Program at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
An internationally recognized scholar, Duhl’s research focuses on the Marquis de Lafayette as well as late-medieval and early-Renaissance French literature, theater, rhetoric, translation, and textual criticism. Her distinguished career has earned numerous honors, including l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, one of France’s oldest and most prestigious civil distinctions, awarded by the French Ministry of Education. She has also received a Renaissance Society of America grant, a Bibliographical Society of America fellowship, and appointments as a Visiting Scholar at the University Sorbonne Nouvelle–Paris 3 and the École nationale des chartes. The exhibition follows the success of A True Friend of the Cause: Lafayette and the Anti-Slavery Movement, which Duhl co-curated at Manhattan’s Grolier Club in 2016 and 2017. Together, these projects underscore Lafayette’s enduring relevance as a champion of liberty, human rights, and democratic ideals on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lafayette between France and America: History and Legend on view at the National Archives Museum in Paris
