Revolutionary Stories & Evolutionary Specimens

Delaware’s state symbols are more than emblems on a flag or a page in a textbook

They connect to real people and stories: a missionary on the Delaware Bay, a soldier’s legendary chickens, a forester cataloguing the woods, a woman leading people to freedom through autumn marshes, an astronomer who grew up watching the stars from a Dover rooftop, and generations of Delaware students.

From the deep natural history recorded in fossils and forests to the actions of people who challenged, discovered, and reimagined the world around them, these symbols connect science and history.

This exhibit highlights figures with direct or thematic ties to Delaware and the surrounding region, alongside Delaware students whose curiosity continues this legacy. Created in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States and the State of Delaware, DE250 invites visitors to explore how Delaware has been a place of both discovery and change. As you visit the museum, explore some of these stories on panels in our galleries.

John Campanius Holm

(1601-1683)

In 1643, Swedish Lutheran missionary John Campanius Holm arrived at the colony of New Sweden, near present-day Wilmington. He learned the Lenape language, recorded their customs, and carefully documented the plants and creatures of the Delaware Bay. His grandson later published his observations, including one of the earliest European descriptions of the horseshoe crab.

Horseshoe Crab

Delaware State Marine Animal

The horseshoe crab has lived in Delaware’s waters for more than 400 million years — long before the dinosaurs. Every spring, thousands crowd the shores of the Delaware Bay to lay their eggs, drawing migrating shorebirds from across the hemisphere. In 2002, the Delaware General Assembly designated the horseshoe crab as the state’s official marine animal.

Charles Willson Peale

(1741–1827)

During the summer of 1793 — amid the deadly Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia — Charles Willson Peale and his 13-year-old son, Titian Ramsay Peale I (1780–1798), traveled to Cape Henlopen, Delaware for a four-week collecting trip. Their goal was to collect and prepare taxidermied bird specimens for their museum in Philadelphia, including Northern Harrier, Willet, Clapper Rail, Great Egret, Osprey, and Pied-Billed Grebe — the oldest bird specimen records from Delaware.

Red Knot

Delaware State Migratory Bird

One of the newest state symbols, the Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa) is a migratory bird that stops along the Delaware bays every year, feasting on horseshoe crab eggs before continuing its journey north. Up to 90 percent of the Red Knot subspecies Rufa can pass through the Delaware bays in a single day during spring migration. Delaware’s House Bill 189 made it official, signed into law by Governor Matt Meyer on July 16, 2025.

William S. Taber

(1899–1981)

In 1927, William S. Taber became Delaware’s very first State Forester, a position he held for over four decades. He catalogued the trees of Delaware and wrote the state’s first comprehensive native tree guide, Delaware Trees. A copy of this book is available to view in the museum’s Field Station.

American Holly

Delaware State Tree

The American Holly (Ilex opaca) has deep roots in Delaware. By the 1930s, Delaware led the nation in holly wreath production, with the industry employing thousands of workers each season and shipping berried branches as far as New York and beyond. In 1939, the American Holly was officially named Delaware’s state tree. The industry faded when plastic wreaths flooded the market, but the tree remains an important part of Delaware’s ecology.

Harriet Tubman

(1822–1913)

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland. After escaping to freedom, she made dangerous journeys back to the Eastern Shore, leading more than seventy people to freedom — traveling north through Delaware’s marshes, fields, and forests under cover of night. She used the natural world to survive: the North Star, the lay of the land, and the seasonal rhythms of the landscape.

Sweet Goldenrod

Delaware State Herb

Sweet goldenrod (Solidago odora) has grown along Delaware’s coastal marshes, field edges, and open woodlands for thousands of years — it grows in the museum’s own meadow too. In 1996, Delaware’s General Assembly designated sweet goldenrod as the state’s official herb, recognizing both its beauty and its deep roots in Delaware’s landscape. It blooms in late summer and early fall, when its golden plumes attract dozens of native bee species.

Annie Jump Cannon

(1863–1941)

Annie Jump Cannon grew up in Dover, watching the stars from the roof of her childhood home. First hired by the Harvard College Observatory to carry out astronomical calculations, she went on to become known as the “census taker of the sky” for manually classifying more than 300,000 stars — more than any person in history — and creating the star classification system astronomers still use today.

Delaware Diamond

Delaware State Star

The Delaware Diamond sits in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear), at right ascension 9h40m44s and declination 48°14’2″. The star was chosen to celebrate the new millennium and named by twelve-year-old Amy Nerlinger of Wilmington, through a contest held at the museum in 1999. In 2000, Delaware became the first state to register an official state star — a designation that’s ceremonial and not recognized by astronomers.

Captain Jonathan Caldwell

(1742–1781)

When Captain Jonathan Caldwell of Kent County marched off to fight the British in 1775, his men allegedly brought along gamecocks descended from a famous blue hen, bred for their legendary fighting spirit. According to tradition, this earned the soldiers a nickname that stuck: “Blue Hen’s Chickens.”

Blue Hen

Delaware State Bird

The Blue Hen was a source of state pride long before it became an official symbol. By the Civil War era, it appeared in political cartoons and state publications. The University of Delaware adopted it as their mascot in 1911, and on April 14, 1939, the Delaware General Assembly made it official. Delaware and Rhode Island are the only two states whose state bird is a domestic chicken.

Benjamin Silliman

(1779–1864)

In 1802, Benjamin Silliman became the first professor of chemistry at Yale University — before he had ever studied the subject. He taught himself, traveled to Europe to learn, and returned to help build American science from the ground up. He founded the American Journal of Science in 1818, still published today. The mineral sillimanite was named in his honor in 1850.

Sillimanite

Delaware State Mineral

Sillimanite is a rare mineral formed deep in the earth under intense heat and pressure, hundreds of millions of years ago. Its needle-like crystals have a texture similar to wood. In Delaware, sillimanite is found in the rocky Piedmont near Wilmington, where ancient mountain-building events brought it to the surface. In 1977, the Delaware General Assembly, acting on a proposal by the Delaware Mineralogical Society, established it as the Delaware State Mineral.

Delaware Students

The next person to shape the state’s story might be sitting in a classroom right now. Many of Delaware’s state symbols were championed by school children — in addition to the specimens above, students helped get these symbols officially recognized:

Ladybug — State Bug In 1974, second graders at Lulu M. Ross Elementary School in Milford campaigned for the ladybug to become Delaware’s official state bug, led by their teacher, Mrs. Mollie Brown-Rust.

Belemnite — State Fossil In 1996, third graders at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Wilmington took a field trip to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, collected belemnite fossils, and successfully petitioned the legislature to make it Delaware’s official state fossil.

Channeled Whelk — State Shell In 2013, Girl Scout Allyson Willis noticed that Delaware — a state with miles of coastline — had no official state shell. She changed that for her Girl Scout Bronze Award project, collecting signatures and working with state officials. By 2014, the channeled whelk was official.

Gray Fox — State Wildlife Animal In 2010, fourth graders at Joseph M. McVey Elementary School proposed the gray fox as Delaware’s official wildlife animal — arguing it was “always ready, like our soldiers at Dover Air Force Base.” The legislature agreed.

Dryptosaurus — State Dinosaur Dryptosaurus was a large, fast predator that roamed the ancient shores of what’s now the Mid-Atlantic coast roughly 70 million years ago. In 2022, students at Shue-Medill Middle School in Newark worked with museum scientists and state officials to research Delaware’s fossil record, draft House Bill 390, and present it to the General Assembly. Dryptosaurus became Delaware’s official state dinosaur that June.

Stonefly — State Macroinvertebrate In 2005, students from a Wilmington environmental science program proposed the stonefly — an insect whose presence signals clean, healthy water — as Delaware’s official state macroinvertebrate. It was designated that year.

Blue Dasher — State Dragonfly In 2025, Senator Stephanie Hansen launched the Delaware Dragonfly Project, inviting students statewide to submit essays and artwork making the case for their favorite dragonfly species. Students and teachers voted, and the Blue Dasher won.

Revolutionary Stories & Evolutionary Specimens has been made possible in part by a grant from Delaware 250.