All images © Histovery, courtesy of HNOC.
Scenes from the augmented reality experience presented in the Historic New Orleans Collection's exhibition, "American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition" : The Signing of the Declaration of Independence.
When Benjamin Franklin and John Adams signed the Declaration of Independence in August of 1776, it is unlikely they imagined future Americans would study an augmented reality recreation of the scene 250 years later.
We’re living in a new world now, a new America. And this spring, the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) is unveiling a thoroughly twenty-first century approach to studying our country’s layered, fascinating origins.
American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition, produced and designed by the French technology firm Histovery, is perhaps the closest thing t time travel our age of innovation has yet developed. Launching at the HNOC as part of the Louisiana America 250 initiative—which celebrates the 250th birthday of the United States through various events and programming throughout 2026—the cutting-edge exhibition “dissolves the museum walls,” according to HNOC chief curator Jason Wiese. “It creates an experience that exists, not just in the temporal and physical space of the museum, but also in the imagination of the visitor.”
All images © Histovery, courtesy of HNOC.
Scenes from the augmented reality experience presented in the Historic New Orleans Collection's exhibition, "American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition": The Boston Tea Party.
In some ways more akin to a video game than a traditional museum gallery, American Revolution is made up of fourteen immersive “chapters,” which each contain scenes from across the revolutionary era. Visitors will maneuver through the journey utilizing a Histopad tablet, which will allow them to interact, via augmented reality (AR), with immersive physical elements in each room, as well as digital AR portals leading to deeper exploration of particular moments leading up to, and during, the Revolutionary War.
“Where you go within each chapter or section is entirely up to you,” said Wiese, who was part of a team of historians and scholars consulted for the exhibition. “You can select any of the points you see—whether it be people or buildings, to learn more about what they were and what you’re looking at. So, each visitor will have a unique experience.”
All images © Histovery, courtesy of HNOC.
Scenes from the augmented reality experience presented in the Historic New Orleans Collection's exhibition, "American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition": The Battle of New York Harbor.
Within the exhibition, you might find yourself wandering the streets of colonial Virginia just as protests begin to erupt in the wake of the 1765 Stamp Act, or on the Dartmouth in the Boston Harbor as the Sons of Liberty toss more than 300 chests of tea into the water. Walk beside George Washington as he led his 2,400 troops across the Delaware, or huddle around a fire during the long, bloody winter of 1777–1778 at Valley Forge.
“The show will allow this new, up-close look at people and events that most Americans have heard of, like Bunker Hill and Saratoga Valley Forge,” said Wiese. “But also moments that a lot of people don’t know anything about, such as the Gulf South’s involvement in the war.” The exhibition includes, for instance, an entire chapter devoted to Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish Colonial Governor of Louisiana at the time, and the ways he supported the revolutionaries. Viewers can step inside his successful siege of Pensacola, fought from March 9–May 10,1781 by Galvez’s army—which was made up of Spanish forces, as well as free Black soldiers from Louisiana and Havana, along with Indigenous allies.
All images © Histovery, courtesy of HNOC.
Scenes from the augmented reality experience presented in the Historic New Orleans Collection's exhibition, "American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition": The formation of the alliance between George Washington's American forces and the French at Yorktown.
“Including the stories of the Gulf South in this war complicates our understanding of the Revolution and enlarges it,” said Wiese. “Because the Revolutionary War was essentially a world war, with huge repercussions beyond North America. It wasn’t just felt along the Atlantic seaboard. It’s a complicated story, and I think in this exhibit it is told in an accessible way.”
Accessibility was a major goal for the engineers and historians behind American Revolution. It’s designed to meet all ages where they are, and is supported in multiple languages.
Wiese said that organizers see this exhibition as establishing the HNOC as a cultural hub for the Louisiana American 250 commemorations this year. “There are a lot of events happening around the city, but we hope this is something people will seek out to enrich their understanding of our country’s origins,” he said. And, as always at the HNOC, admission is free.
Learn more at hnoc.org.
