Free introductory tours, conducted by Guildhall Art Gallery’s team of City Guides, are available every day, from Tuesday to Sunday.
'Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness' on the 250th anniversary of the USA.
As the USA celebrates its 250th birthday, attention returns once again to Thomas Jefferson’s famous words in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence: ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness’.
Today, this phrase lies at the heart of a quintessentially American creed – one that speaks to free, expansive, questing life that so many in the USA hold dear. But Jefferson’s choice of words in 1776 were not original.
They owed much to the values, ideas and personalities of the European Enlightenment and, particularly, Georgian Britain. Stories can be glimpsed inside them: John Wilkes's bravura political campaigns of the 1760s, Samuel Johnson's emphasis on living a 'happy' life, Catharine Macaulay's zeal for liberty, Thomas Paine's opposition to tyranny.
Join bestselling historian and author Peter Moore as he explores how the British stories contributed to a seismic moment of political change on the anniversary of the first Independence Day.
Time: Wednesday 1 July 6.30–8pm.
Tickets: £27.50 to be reserved in advance.
