Morven Museum & Gardens popular speaker series Grand Homes and Gardens is returning. Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Freedom at Home: Telling the Full Story of Americas Founding Homes and Gardens examines estates belonging to signers of the Declaration including William Paca, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and Arthur Middleton. Illustrated presentations by speakers from each site will offer insight into how architecturally significant homes, gardens, and landscapes of the time were designed and built. At the same time, about two-thirds of the Declarations signers were enslavers, and these estates were all sites of American slavery. How were ideas of independence and autonomy woven into these spaces? How have they engaged and challenged founding ideals of freedom and liberty? Participants will learn how experts work today to tell the full story of these homes and their place in Americas founding. These presentations will be held at Morven Museum & Garden located at 55 Stockton St., Princeton, N.J. Join Morven, a museum set in the home of a signer, built in the 1750s for Richard Stockton and his wife, Annis Boudinot, as we travel around the original 13 Colonies for a journey through architecture, design, gardening, and social history of the 18th century. The series includes the March 12 lecture Stratford Hall (the Virginia home of Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee) with Dr. Gordon Blaine Steffey, director of research and the Jessie Ball duPont Memorial Library. Stratford Hall was also the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States during the Civil War. Four generations of the Lee family lived at Stratford. Today, the site stands as a model of Georgian architecture, standing almost entirely as it did in the 1740s. On Thursday, March 26, will be Thomas Jeffersons Revolutionary Garden with Peter Hatch, gardener, historian, and emeritus director of garden and grounds for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. The Monticello vegetable garden, a 1,000-foot-long terrace, grew new and unusual edible plants from around the world. Jefferson was a strong believer in a vegetable diet, and this revolutionary garden inspired a revolutionary cuisine in the kitchen at Monticello. Today, these gardens have been mostly restored to the early 19th century. On Thursday, April 16, will be Middleton Place (the South Carolina home of Arthur Middleton) with Brandon Stone, director of research and preservation. In Charleston, S.C., Middleton Place was the primary home of Declaration signer Arthur Middleton. More than 2,800 men, women, and children were enslaved by the Middleton family from 1738 to 1865. The estate was heavily impacted by the Civil War when Union troops razed most of the property. The plantations extensive and transformative gardens, established in the 1740s, were awarded the Garden Club of Americas highest honor, the Bulkley Medal, in 1941. All programs are hybrid, with both in-person and virtual options. Participants can choose to attend individual events or purchase the series and save on tickets. Each program takes place at 6:30 p.m. in Morvens Stockton Education Center. For in-person ticketholders, doors will open at 6 p.m. for light refreshments. The 2026 Grand Homes and Gardens speaker series is sponsored by Bryn Mawr Trust. Details can be found by visiting www.morven.org.