Federal government installs reworked panels about slavery at George Washington's Philadelphia home

The federal government installed new interpretive panels at the President's House site in Philadelphia on Wednesday morning. The panels replace displays that had been in place since 2010 and follow a 2025 executive order directing federally controlled historic sites to avoid content that disparages Americans.

The original panels described how nine enslaved people lived at the site with George and Martha Washington in the 1790s.

The new panels retain information on enslaved residents, the abolitionist movement, the Constitution's treatment of slavery, the end of slavery in Pennsylvania, and the views of Washington and John Adams. "

city response A lower court ordered the federal government in February to remove the new panels after they were first installed. A three-judge panel of the U.S.

3rd Circuit of Appeals reversed that order on July 3 and allowed the work to proceed. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said the city will seek a rehearing on legal issues raised by the appeals court decision.

The city had sued the federal government, arguing that changes to the site require consultation with Philadelphia. Justice Department lawyers maintained that the administration alone decides what content appears at National Park Service properties. The panels were installed in the same area where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.