Museum of the American Revolution

02/26/2025

The fight for women’s rights began long before the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920. In March 1776, Abigail Adams implored her husband, John Adams, to “Remember the Ladies” as he and the other men of the Continental Congress worked to enshrine the laws of a new government. From 1776 until 1807, women and free people of color held the right to vote in New Jersey thanks to the state’s own radical constitution – a right that was later revoked and then reserved for only white men. All the while, female activists in many cases were still constrained by the stereotypes, laws, and tropes of their society. From the Revolutionary era to today, as norms have changed, activists have ensured the promise of the American Revolution endures by fighting for equal rights for all people.

In "In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America," author Jacqueline Beatty uses examples of 18th-century women like Adams and Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, who realized the limitations their gender placed on them in early American society, especially their dependence on the men in their lives for economic, legal, and livelihood protection. And yet these women carefully manipulated femininity to exert their own power and agency in other ways. When Fergusson’s secret marriage to Loyalist Henry Fergusson and his subsequent disappearance led to financial ruin and the confiscation of her family estate, she petitioned the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council for its return and “employed tropes of feminine helplessness and vulnerability” in a careful appeal to the council’s sympathy. Other women leaned on societal expectations of them as mothers and caregivers to secure benefits and protection for themselves.

Read an excerpt with our latest Read the Revolution feature.

The fight for women’s rights began long before the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920. In March 1776, Abigail Adams implored her husband, John Adams, to “Remember the Ladies” as he and the other men of the Continental Congress worked to enshrine the laws of a new government. From 1776 until 180...

02/25/2025

In 1781, over 200,000 enslaved men, women, and children labored in Virginia’s fields, kitchens, stables, and shops. What were the experiences of people of African descent – free and enslaved – in Virginia, as the British and American armies fought one another across the state? What opportunities and challenges did they face as the war progressed?

With our Finding Freedom online interactive feature, adapted from the Museum's galleries, meet Andrew, Deborah, Eve, Jack, and London – five real people of African descent who lived in war-torn Virginia in 1781 whose stories are told through research-based first-person narratives.

Finding Freedom, bronze-level winner of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM)'s 2021 Media & Technology MUSE Award in the category of online experiences, draws from a variety of historical sources and contemporary analysis to try to understand the lives and decisions of five real people of African....

02/23/2025

On this day in 1777, the Battle of Spanktown (now Rahway, New Jersey) took place near Woodbridge.

This battle was part of the “Forage War” that took place in northern New Jersey as the British and the Revolutionaries jockeyed for supplies (firewood, livestock, food) in the wake of the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Lieutenant Samuel Gerock of the Continental Army's German Regiment sketched this map of the Battle of Spanktown. Gerock and several hundred fellow Continental soldiers and New Jersey militiamen fought a large British force sent out from their posts around New York. Gerock, born in Lancaster, Pa., before moving to Baltimore, kept notes about his service in the campaigns of 1776 and 1777 in a small pocket almanac, which also contains this battle sketch.

See Gerock's almanac on display at the Museum and take a closer look with our online interactive: https://bit.ly/41Q99lg

02/22/2025

On this day in 1732, George Washington was born in Virginia to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington. Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States, Washington was the first U.S. president to be honored with a federal holiday starting in 1879 before later expanding to the whole federal government.

In 1775, an English printer named “C. Shepherd” published a mezzotint of General Washington on horseback. While the image bears little resemblance to Washington, the print claimed it was “Done from an original drawing from the Life by Alexr. Campbell of Williamsburgh in Virginia.” Martha Washington received one of these prints in January 1776. Her husband commented: “Mr. Campbell whom I never saw (to my knowledge) has made a very formidable figure of the Commander in Chief giving him a sufficient portion of Terror in his Countenance.” This is one of the earliest prints of General George Washington.

From our collection: bit.ly/2NHmkB0

02/21/2025

📣 Calling all Philadelphia-area high school or college students passionate about history, education, theater, visual arts, communications, or costume design!

Applications are now open for our 2025 Living History Youth Summer Institute. This six-week intensive program is your gateway to the fascinating world of costumed historical interpretation, focusing on the lives and experiences of people of African descent during the Revolutionary era. Participants will embark on exciting field trips and engaging activities with African American interpreters to gain valuable insights and enrich their experience. The Museum will help participants research and share stories of enslaved and free individuals from Revolutionary America.

Apply by March 17: https://bit.ly/3JsaxkE

02/20/2025

"The museum offers immersive galleries, a vast collection of period objects, and programs to help visitors gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the forming of this nation, as well as its ongoing commitment to liberty and equality."

Thanks to your votes, we've been named the No. 5 Best History Museum in America by USA TODAY as part of its 2025 USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice Awards! 🥳🎉

See the full list here: https://bit.ly/4b5xt5m

02/19/2025

Museum membership has its perks! Members are invited to join us for upcoming exclusive events:

📆 Feb. 26: In the latest edition of our new virtual lunch and learn series, join a Museum educator to get to know the leading ladies who participated in the war effort and shaped Revolutionary ideals that impact us today

📆 March 2: During a Member Morning, enjoy a gallery highlights tour exploring the roles of Revolutionary-era women on the homefront and on campaign during the Revolutionary War.

Not a Member? Join today to register for these events, first access to new exhibits like our Banners of Liberty exhibition opening April 19, and much more.

Take pride in supporting the Museum's mission to uncover and share compelling stories about the diverse people and complex events that sparked America's ongoing experiment in liberty, equality, and self-government.Already a Museum Member? Check out our For Members page to take advantage of your bene...

02/18/2025

Olaudah Equiano was a man of African descent who purchased his own freedom and published a memoir of his experiences in 1789.

While he was enslaved, he lived in Virginia, Georgia, and the Caribbean. His memoir detailed the cruelty of slavery in all these places. He also recalled how he had to leave the American colonies for England, where he felt a free African American man was safer from kidnapping and re-enslavement. His memoir, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vasa, the African, Written by Himself,” played a vital role in the anti-slavery movement and even influenced the passage of the British Slave Trade Act 1807. Equiano has been considered as one of the possible sitters in this portrait, seen in our core galleries.

Learn more on your next visit: bit.ly/34R70b5

🎨: Portrait of a Man in a Red Suit. Artist unknown, oil on canvas, 1740-1780. Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery

02/17/2025

Buttoned up for Presidents Day 🪡

These patriotically decorated buttons in the Museum's collection were sold as souvenirs of George Washington’s presidential inauguration in April 1789. The ceremony was a grand occasion as crowds of spectators gathered in New York City to watch Washington take the oath of office. Notice the variety of designs on these commemorative buttons. Some show an eagle, some have the chain of states, and some include the phrase “Long Live the President.” Unlike most modern political buttons, these were made to be sewn onto clothing.

See them on your visit for Presidents Day and join a Museum educator to learn about Washington’s time as president and how his decision to not seek a third term helped set the two-term precedent in place today.

Presidents Day: https://bit.ly/3EmtkxJ

02/16/2025

Throughout Presidents' Day Weekend at the Museum, learn about the story of Harry Washington, who was enslaved by George Washington and later escaped Mount Vernon to fight for the British Army during the Revolutionary War.⁣

At a discovery cart at the Museum throughout the weekend or online anytime, explore a reproduction government set or "stand of arms," spade, shirt, brush, and copy of Lord Dunmore's 1775 Proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who ran away to fight for the British Army. https://bit.ly/40SXa4k
⁣

Harry (Henry) Washington was born in West Africa in the mid-18th century. His exact birth name, birthdate, and location of birth are unknown. In 1763, Harry was captured, transported to Virginia, and purchased and enslaved by George Washington. After being enslaved, Harry worked on a project to ...

02/15/2025

Our Meet the Revolution program continues over Presidents' Day Weekend this weekend at the Museum!

On Sunday, Feb. 16, join living historian Leslie Bramlett to explore the lives of two women of African descent connected to the Revolutionary era: Hannah Archer Till and Ona Judge. Bramlett will share stories about the roles and responsibilities of both women, their connections to George Washington, and how they found their freedom on different paths.

Presidents' Day Weekend: https://bit.ly/3EmtkxJ

02/14/2025

From Lafayette to Lombardi, Philadelphia knows how to celebrate with a parade. 💚

Just as we're celebrating the Lombardi Trophy's return to the city, Philadelphians celebrated the Marquis de Lafayette’s return to the United States in 1824 with a large parade that passed by Independence Hall. Artist John Archibald Woodside painted this silk banner with a portrait of Lafayette at the center for the parade. The “Victuallers of Philadelphia,” the butchers who supplied the city’s residents, taverns, and inns with meat, carried this banner during the procession through the streets.

From our collection: https://bit.ly/3g4WzVc

02/13/2025

The Museum will be CLOSED tomorrow, Feb. 14, as we join the city in celebrating the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl victory. Go Birds! 🦅💚

Plan your visit for Presidents' Day Weekend at the Museum, Feb. 15-17: https://bit.ly/3EmtkxJ

02/12/2025

Thaddeus Kościuszko, one of Poland’s most famous national heroes, was born in February 1746 near present-day Belarus, Poland, to a modest family of noble origins. Though his contributions to the American Revolution are not as well known, his skills as an engineer and passion for liberty and equality led many of his fellow revolutionaries to consider him, along with the Marquis de Lafayette, one of America’s founding cousins.

Kościuszko is pictured on the bottom left of this sheet of postage stamps issued during the United States Bicentennial featured in our Timeline of the American Revolution. Take a closer look: https://bit.ly/3HUzhAc

02/11/2025

The Revolutionary War began almost 250 years ago at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. Among the hundreds of Minutemen who took the field that day were at least 35 men of African descent. For the rest of the Revolutionary War, soldiers of color fought on both sides of the conflict. In historical artist Don Troiani and historian John U. Rees’s new book, Don Troiani’s Black Soldiers in America’s Wars, 1754-1865, we have the chance to see what these soldiers may have looked like as they fought in regiments from around the world and in all theaters of the war.

This Read the Revolution excerpt explores just the first battles of the war, but Troiani and Rees’s book includes vivid illustrations depicting battle scenes and individual soldiers. Troiani’s individual “figure studies” show us soldiers of African descent in the Rhode Island Regiment, the Havana Battalion of Free Blacks, the Hessen-Hanau Artillery, and many other units.

📆 Plus, over Presidents' Day Weekend at the Museum on Sunday, Feb. 16, stop by the Museum’s rotunda for the chance to meet John Rees and pick up a copy of Don Troiani’s Black Soldiers in America’s Wars, 1754-1865.

The Revolutionary War began almost 250 years ago at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775. Among the hundreds of Minutemen who took the field that day were at least 35 men of African descent. For the rest of the Revolutionary War, soldiers of color fought on both si...

02/10/2025

"𝑰𝒏 𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒚."

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles for their victory in ! 🎉🦅

The motto “The Glory not the Prey," part of a quote by Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney, appears on this flag purchased in 1777 by the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment. The flag, one of two purchased by the regiment with funds from the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, has a British union stitched in its canton and will be on display in our upcoming special exhibition Banners of Liberty: An Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags, opening April 19. Conservator Gina Whelan has been visiting the Museum to conduct work on this flag, on loan from New Hampshire Historical Society, and others that will be on display in the exhibition.

Banners of Liberty: https://bit.ly/3WXA5MD

02/09/2025

Did someone say a... super bowl? 😉

This Philadelphia-made porcelain punch bowl found during an archaeological excavation at the site of the Museum has been referred to as the "Holy Grail of American ceramics." Scientific analysis following the excavation revealed that this bowl is the earliest known example of American-made hard-paste porcelain. European and American consumers desired this fashionable, translucent, and difficult-to-produce ceramic in the 1700s. Found at the bottom of Benjamin and Mary Humphreys' privy, this bowl is thought to be an experimental product made by the American China Manufactory in Philadelphia in 1772 using clay from South Carolina.

Read more about this super bowl and see it on your visit before the big game: https://bit.ly/4hi20iw

02/08/2025

We're ready for game day. 🦅💚

Visit the Museum this weekend to get in the Philly spirit! Pick up a scavenger hunt to find Eagles and bowl-related items in our core galleries and win a super prize at the end. Plus, get a free audio tour when you purchase a family four-pack for $59 in honor of Super Bowl LIX! (In-person audio tours only.) Go Birds!

Plan your visit: https://bit.ly/34CiSxy