Tours, Guides & Maps
Explore the Museum with an expert! Take a guided tour and enhance your experience with additional insight into the artifacts and exhibits, behind-the-scenes details of the Museum’s creation, and opportunities to dig deeper into the stories behind objects on display.
On this page, you will find information and ticket links for the Museum's robust lineup of tours, including early access tours, highlights tours, audio tours, walking tours, and more.
Disclaimer: In the case of extreme or adverse weather, outdoor walking tours may be converted to alternative specialized indoor experiences.
Outdoor Walking Tour: Revolutionary City
Offered Sundays at 10 a.m.
$34 for walking tour only (non-members), $45 for walking tour plus Museum admission (non-members), $24 for Members
Please Note: Children under the age of 18 years old must be accompanied by an adult.
Join an educator to explore our Revolutionary neighborhood and imagine what life was like in the 1700s. This 1.5-hour guided tour covers about a mile and stops outside iconic sites including City Tavern, Independence Hall, and Carpenters' Hall to discuss the experiences of everyday people in the Revolutionary era. Don’t forget to bring water and sunscreen, and make sure to save time to explore the Museum before or after your tour!
Outdoor Walking Tour: The Declaration's Journey
Offered Saturdays at 10 a.m.
$34 for walking tour only (non-members), $45 for walking tour plus Museum admission (non-members), $24 for Members
Please Note: Children under the age of 18 years old must be accompanied by an adult.
The Declaration’s Journey Walking Tour takes you beyond the Museum and into the neighborhood where Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence and where its words first started spreading to the world.
On this 90-minute tour, roughly a three-quarter–mile walk, visit sites connected to the creation, printing, and enduring legacy of America’s founding document. Along the way, discover the stories of printers, immigrants, abolitionists, suffragists, and civil rights leaders who drew inspiration from its promise of liberty and equality.
Public Universal Friend Walking Tour
June 6, 13, 20, and 27 at 11 a.m.
$34 for walking tour only (non-members), $45 for walking tour plus Museum admission (non-members), $24 for Members
Please Note: Children under the age of 18 years old must be accompanied by an adult.
Join a Museum educator on this 90-minute walking tour exploring the revolutionary story of the self-proclaimed Public Universal Friend, a nonbinary leader of a new religion in the 1770s. This walking tour covers about a mile and stops at iconic places like Elfreth’s Alley, Carpenters’ Hall, and the site of diarist Elizabeth Drinker's home to discuss how the Revolution in Philadelphia provided people like the Public Universal Friend opportunities to test boundaries and challenge the social norms of a rapidly changing society.
Gallery Highlights Tour: Core Exhibition
Offered Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Admission plus $10 non-members, $10 Members
If purchasing online, add general admission ticket(s) to your cart, and then select the tour as an add-on.
Join a Museum educator for this 60-minute tour of the core exhibit galleries highlighting objects and hearing about how the diverse groups of people living in North America experienced the American Revolution, including Loyalists, Hessians, free and enslaved people of African descent, women at home and at war, and other Revolutionaries. During your tour, you will explore the American Revolution from its beginnings in the 1760s and trace its ongoing story.
Gallery Highlights Tour: Black Voices of the Revolution
Offered Saturdays and Sundays at 12 p.m.
Admission plus $10 non-members, $10 Members
If purchasing online, add general admission ticket(s) to your cart, and then select the tour as an add-on.
Join a Museum educator for this 60-minute tour of the core exhibit galleries highlighting a diverse set of stories, experiences, and objects related to people of African descent during the American Revolution. Along the way, you’ll see a first edition of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, learn about Elizabeth Freeman’s historic court case, consider what the engraving “No Slavery” on a Continental Army soldier’s musket meant, and discuss William Lee's role on campaign as Washington's enslaved valet. Through it all, you’ll have the opportunity to consider what words like freedom, liberty, and equality meant for different people within the Revolutionary era, and how these ideas continue to influence our lives today.
Gallery Highlights Tour: Revolutionary Women
May 9 and 10 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Admission plus $10 non-members, $10 Members
If purchasing online, add general admission ticket(s) to your cart, and then select the tour as an add-on.
Take a closer look at the stories and contributions of the many diverse women who shaped the Revolution in this 60-minute tour of the Museum's galleries.
Early Access Guided Tour: Core Galleries
Offered Fridays and Sundays at 9 a.m.
$50 non-members, $35 Members
This 60-minute guided tour offers visitors a private opportunity to see the Museum's exhibits before we open. These early access tours are great for members and first time visitors alike! Space is limited to 15 people.
Early Access Guided Tour: The Declaration's Journey
Offered Thursdays and Saturdays at 9 a.m.
$50 non-members, $35 Members
Join us for a 60-minute exclusive access guided tour of the Museum’s special exhibition, The Declaration’s Journey. Led by a Museum educator, this tour highlights key objects that trace the history and global impact of the Declaration of Independence—from its signing in 1776 to the present day.
Audio Tours
Listen on a sanitized, Museum-issued device (available at front desk) for $3 for members, $4 for groups, and $5 for general public with regular admission. Audio tours may be pre-purchased with admission tickets.
Take our audio tour of the Museum’s core exhibition narrated by the Museum’s President and CEO Dr. R. Scott Stephenson, and featuring the “voices” of Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American female poet, and Baroness Frederika von Riedesel, who aided the wounded and journaled about her experience. Available in English, Spanish, and French!
An audio tour of The Declaration's Journey (with transcriptions) is available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese Mandarin, and Brazilian Portuguese, for $3 for members, $5 for general public.
History Explorers Audio Tours
Listen on a sanitized, Museum-issued device (available at front desk) for $3 for members, $4 for groups, and $5 for general public with regular admission. Audio tours may be pre-purchased with admission tickets.
Young visitors can take an audio tour of the Museum's core exhibition and learn more about the American Revolution from historical figures like King George III, Phillis Wheatley, and even a Liberty Tree!
Audio Descriptive Tour
Available free of charge, this tour of the Museum's core galleries expands on our regular audio tour and features historical content, evocative descriptions of objects and environments, and navigational directions to help people move around the Museum. It is accompanied by Braille guides and raised, touchable maps that guests can check out from our front desk.
ListenCorporate Values Tours
For a unique and impactful way to share your company’s values with your team, clients, or stakeholders, Corporate Values Tours at the Museum offer Revolutionary options for groups from any workplace. Our hour-long tours are designed to immerse participants in the stories of the American Revolution, highlighting your company’s values such as perseverance, diversity, and teamwork that drove the Revolutionaries to secure their independence. Contact [email protected] to book your tour today.
More InfoTouch Tours
Offered on Demand with Booking in Advance
Join a Museum Educator for a tactile tour of the Museum’s core galleries designed for guests with visual disabilities and their sighted companions. This hour-and-a-half tour includes sensory experiences and replica objects that activate the history of the Revolution through hands-on learning. Touch Tours are free with admission and can be booked in advance! Call our front desk at (267) 579-3046 to book a ticket.
Guided tours and program facilitation is supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.
Museum Map
View the map of the Museum to plan your route through the Museum on your next visit.
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