Freedom Train
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Two national Freedom Trains have toured the United States: the 1947–49 special exhibit Freedom Train and the 1975–76 American Freedom Train which celebrated the United States Bicentennial. Each train had its own special red, white and blue paint scheme and its own itinerary and route across the 48 contiguous states, stopping to visitors and displaying Americana and related historical artifacts. There are plans to run a Freedom Train again in 2026.
#1776 was an ALCO PA-1 locomotive built specially for the first Freedom Train.
The Susan B. Anthony Club of Los Angeles gathers for a photograph in front of the Freedom Train in February 1948
The American Freedom Train waiting at the Naval Air Station in Miramar, California, on January 15, 1976
Southern Pacific 4449 stopping in Georgia in 1976 while pulling the American Freedom Train
United States Bicentennial
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The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic. It was a central event in the memory of the American Revolution. The Bicentennial culminated on Sunday, July 4, 1976, with the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Founding Fathers in the Second Continental Congress.
NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building in 1977
Protestors gathering outside of Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA prior to the reenactment of the Boston Tea Party. Signs protesting oil conglomerates and the Nixon administration can be seen in the crowd. Image Circa 1973
The American Freedom Train stopping in the Naval Air Station in Miramar, California on January 15, 1976
First Lady Betty Ford, with President Gerald Ford, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Philip in the President's Dining Room in conjunction with a 1976 state visit during the US Bicentennial