The Road to Rediscovering America: Putting Civic Education on the Map

It’s been almost 250 years since those first Revolutionaries declared that “all men are created equal .” This summer offers the unique chance to celebrate a momentous birthday and reconnect with our rich history. What better place to do that than at one of the many historic sites scattered throughout this exceptional nation? With the recent publication of the Heritage Guide to Historic Sites: Rediscovering America’s Heritage, parents now have a resource that not only identifies but also evaluates significant battlefields, presidential homes, museums, and the like.

The Heritage Guide to Historic Sites: Rediscovering America’s Heritage is an online interactive map, geared towards tourists, especially parents and grandparents, and teachers thinking about leading a class field trip. Sites in the 13 original colonies are now available, and for Washington’s birthday in 2026, we will pinpoint locations in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Each place on the map is significant and worth visiting for its intrinsic value. 

But not all are well-operated. For that reason, Heritage has sent qualified individuals, with some questions in mind, to assess the current state of our historic sites. How accurate and comprehensive are the tours and exhibits? Are the offerings proportional, primarily focusing on what it is that makes the site significant? Is there an ideological bias animating the telling of history? Based on these criteria, each site earns a historical accuracy grade of A, B, or C. 

With their Heritage reviews in hand, parents and teachers will know what to expect, and potentially what to avoid, prior to their visits. And site operators can improve their grades by addressing identified issues.

Third-party assessments of these sites, by trusted and knowledgeable academics, teachers, and think tank analysts, will help bring accountability to the museum and historic site space. This is a most necessary endeavor, as places like James Madison’s Montpelier no longer have any exhibits dedicated to the Father of the Constitution, John Dickinson’s home neglects to steward the legacy of a key Founder, and both have adopted guidelines that contend: 

“For institutions that interpret slavery, it is not enough simply to discuss the humanity and contributions of the enslaved. It is imperative that these institutions also unpack and interrogate white privilege and supremacy and systemic racism.”

Regardless of whether or not site operators adequately explain the weightiness of these places, Heritage evaluators provide summaries of why each site is significant, and offer book recommendations for adults and children who would like to learn more. The “considerations for families” sections contain tips, like which exhibits are best for parents with young children, who may have limited attention spans, in terms of content.

Because the Guide is for families, and because we at Heritage believe in federalism, this is a state-driven project. The Guide does not ignore, but rather favors, more local sites that preserve places where history really happened, over D.C.-based museums that amalgamate history that occurred elsewhere. Many lesser-known institutions, and the people who work there, pride themselves on stewarding local, state, and American history, and deserve our recognition and gratitude. Further, as most American families cannot afford airline tickets to D.C. for every family excursion, it is our hope that they will find at least one site within driving distance.  

It is our view that these sites belong to the American people, and through our “submit your own review” feature, The Heritage Foundation invites the public (and site operators) to voice disagreement, identify another site that should be evaluated, or indicate that a site has changed since it was last visited. It is our intention to add new sites to this Guide over the years.

Historic sites offer “touch grass” opportunities for friends, classmates, neighbors, and families to learn and rediscover the American story together. Forging such common bonds is particularly beneficial in a world fraught with screens and disembodied interactions, in which neighbors clash because they don’t know one another, citizens are increasingly isolated, and families share dinners across cellphones.

The Guide is a map of the American story, including state history, the spirit of American enterprise, heroic figures, literature and art, and notable events. Historic sites are part of public education, telling the American story through place and revealing the character of a single people. Citizens visiting these locations renew their commitment to a nation conceived in liberty, and educate ourselves about the traditions, principles, and lives that encompass and built this home we call America. 

Those experiences live in the memory of posterity.  Who among us has not recalled family and school excursions that we took in our youth to Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, and other historic sites across this great land? We owe each generation the opportunity of:

Going to Mount Vernon to learn how George Washington formed the American national character, which was an exceptional project for an exceptional man. 

Journeying to Monticello to give, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “All honor to Jefferson - to the man who introduced into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times.” 

Visiting a library in Montpelier to reflect that a Virginia scholar, who cared first about America, made possible the Miracle of Philadelphia.

For America 250, we reflect upon the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln who summoned us to a new birth of freedom and to recall those “mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”