Slavery exhibit being reinstalled at President’s House in Old City

After a judge ordered the Trump administration to restore and reinstall an exhibit on the history of slavery at the President’s House in Philly’s Old City neighborhood by Friday, workers arrived at the site on Thursday morning and began re-installing the exhibit.

As workers installed the panels, NBC10’s Lili Zheng confirmed the exhibit that was being restored was the original exhibit that had been removed last month.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe set the deadline for Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, at 5 p.m. to have the exhibit at the President’s House restored and reinstalled after she issued a scathing ruling likening the removal of the original displays to the governmental oppression discussed in George Orwell’s novel “1984.”

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ now existed, with its motto, ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims—to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote in her ruling. “It does not.”

In her ruling, Rufe ordered the exhibit’s removal be undone and all “exhibits, panels, artwork, or other items” from the President’s House site be restored to the status it was in as of Jan. 21, 2026.

The exhibit was removed on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. Acting on orders from the National Parks Service, workers descended on the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park — a place where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and conducted their executive branch business — and removed an exhibit that examined the history of slavery at the site.

Mayor Cherelle Parker has said that, since 2006, there has been a cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government that calls for officials to meet and confer before any changes could be made to existing exhibits.

The Trump administration has appealed the judge’s ruling.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as new information becomes available.