On March 25, 1965, 25,000 participants concluded a four-day, 54-mile march for voting rights in Montgomery, Alabama. Transcending its primary function as a record of the event, James Karales’s photograph “Selma-to-Montgomery March for Voting Rights in 1965” illustrates how the desire for freedom is the shared heritage of all Americans.

With “Washington Crossing the Delaware” Emanuel Leutze depicts George Washington leading his army across the icy river on Christmas night, 1776.