What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 10am - 4pm Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm Saturday 10am - 4pm Sunday 12pm - 4pm

American Revolution Institute, Washington D.C., DC (2025)

07/12/2025

Happy birthday, Alexander Murray! This Revolutionary War soldier, sailor, and privateer was born on this day in 1755.

Murray, a native of Chestertown, Maryland, was elected in January 1776 as an officer in Smallwood’s Maryland Regiment. On August 27, 1776, the unit would go down in history for its action in delaying the British advance at the Battle of Long Island.

The next year, on June 10, 1777, Murray both resigned his commission in the Continental Army and became captain of the ten-gun privateer sloop General Mercer. For the next two years, Murray captained three more privateer vessels and spent his first of two stints during the war in British captivity. On July 20, 1781, Murray finally obtained his long-sought-after commission in the Continental Navy.

Murray would become an original member of the State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania and proudly wears the Society’s Eagle insignia in this early 19th century portrait miniature held in our museum collections.

07/11/2025

, July 11, 1780, the Comte de Rochambeau, along with approximately 6,000 French soldiers, sailed into Newport, Rhode Island. Expecting cheering crowds and artillery salutes to welcome them, French officers and soldiers lined the decks of their ships and sported their best uniforms in anticipation of being triumphantly received by their new hosts. Unfortunately, they received the opposite. Owing to a bitter taste left in the mouths of the town’s residents after the failed Franco-American venture two years earlier, coupled with a fundamental suspicion of the French, barely anyone turned out to greet the American allies.

Even with the unexpectedly cold welcome, Rochambeau quickly set out to earn the trust of the town’s residents. He ensured them that his army, desperate for supplies after a long voyage at sea, would not steal or plunder as the previous British occupiers did. Instead, they were ordered to pay for everything they received. Outgoing and cordial, Rochambeau started to reverse Newport’s mistrust of the French as early as the next day.

Throughout the following year, he continued to foster a harmonious relationship between his army and the town’s residents until the French forces left Rhode Island in July 1781. From there, they rendezvoused with Gen. George Washington and his army on the Hudson River in New York before embarking for Yorktown, Va., to surprise and capture the British army under Gen. Charles Cornwallis.

Image: Detail of Landung einer Französischen Hulfs-Armee in America, zu Rhode Island. am 11ten Julius 1780 etched by Daniel Chodowiecki, 1784. Berlin, Germany. Collection of the Society of the Cincinnati.

07/10/2025

Library staff are excited to support research by Christine DuLucia, the inaugural recipient of the Thomas Jay McCahill III Fellowship, this year. The fellowship supports advanced research on topics related to American history in the colonial and revolutionary periods. DeLucia is researching a project titled “Land, Diplomacy, and Power in the Revolutionary Northeast” that examines the centrality of land for diverse 18th-century communities across the Northeast, including areas claimed and contested by New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.

To learn more about this fellowship and apply for 2026-2027, visit: https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/research-fellowships/mccahill-fellowship/

07/08/2025

The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon in the yard of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) occurred , July 8, 1776. This reading was one of the first times the public heard independence from Britain had formally been declared. Nixon’s was a lieutenant-colonel in the Third Battalion of Associators, a Philadelphia militia, and would see military action at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. A merchant and soldier, his role symbolized how volunteer citizen-soldiers were key to local defense and the military response to the British.

07/05/2025

250 years ago ― It’s hard not to think about what may have been on John Dickinson’s mind as he wrote the Olive Branch Petition. A Quaker and self-professed scholar of history, Dickinson’s religious beliefs and classical education would have shaped his views and preference for words over battles. The petition, which was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 5, 1775, was the colonists’ last attempt at peace with King George III. The king rejected his subjects’ final plea, without even reading it… a shame, because Dickinson, also known as the “Penman of the Revolution,” had an enviable way with words.

The Olive Branch Petition – the first and last pages of which are pictured here – is in the collection of our friends at the NYPL The New York Public Library

07/04/2025

Happy Independence Day! On July 4, 1776, 249 years ago today, the Second Continental Congress adopted and released a written Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved…”

To celebrate America’s birthday today, dedicate three minutes to reflect upon America’s road to independence by watching 1776: Birth of American Independence from our new animated classroom video series, Year in Revolution.

Watch or re-watch all twelve of the short films comprising Year in Revolution: 1775 and 1776 at our YouTube channel or website, and be sure to share them with fellow history lovers.

Watch Year in Revolution-1776: Birth of American Independence, here:
https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/video/year-in-revolution-1776-birth-of-american-independence/

To view the other Year in Revolution videos for both 1775 and 1776, check out our YouTube channel, here:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ4P4gz7YzfkW7CGnlcglIhrz29EBk0Dc

07/03/2025

On the evening of July 1st, the Institute feted Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, on what would have been his 300th birthday. Rochambeau was born in Vendôme in central France in 1725, into a family of distinguished military and naval officers. At 15, he entered a military academy in Paris, beginning a career that would span more than seven decades. Appointed commander of the French expeditionary force to America after the 1778 Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States, Rochambeau became officially involved in the American Revolution in 1780, when he landed in Newport, Rhode Island, with about 5,500 troops. Nearly a year later, he joined General George Washington to plan a joint offensive. In the late summer of 1781, Washington and Rochambeau marched their combined armies to Virginia, where, with French naval support, they successfully trapped the British army at Yorktown, forcing a surrender on October 19, 1781.

Our inspiring public program celebrating and the Franco-American Alliance here at Anderson House featured remarks from Ambassador of France to the United States Laurent Bili, Washington-Rochambeau National Historic Trail Administrator, Johnny Carawan, Newport Historical Society Executive Director Rebecca Bertrand, and our American Revolution Institute Executive Director F. Anderson Morse. Other evening highlights included songs performed by Chorale de l’Ambasssade de France à Washington, and rare archival materials from our library collections—including “Manuscrit des memoires politique et militaires du marechal de Rochambeau,” the original manuscript of Rochambeau’s memoirs. To toast Rochambeau, Stoll and Wolfe Distillery offered guests Esprit D’Amitié “Spirit of Friendship,” crafted from their corn whiskey. Esteemed partner organizations such as the Connecticut State Archaeologist, the Museum of Connecticut History, and the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association, Inc., presented information to guests during an informal reception before the event.

07/02/2025

On this day 249 years ago, July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution declaring independence from Great Britain. Two days later, it approved the text of a declaration to announce the revolutionary decision. George Clymer, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant, was one of Pennsylvania’s nine delegates to Congress that July. He could have taken with him to the State House this elegant pocket watch that is now preserved in our museum collections. An indication of wealth and status, the silver watch was made by Dutch craftsman Johannes Pieter Kroese of Amsterdam about 1770.

Clymer became active in Philadelphia politics in 1769 and quickly came to advocate for American independence. During the Revolution he served on Pennsylvania’s committee of safety, attended the state’s constitutional convention, and was a delegate to the Continental Congress. After the war Clymer signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and served a term in the first U.S. House of Representatives. He later served as the president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.

View the watch in our online museum collections database here: https://americanrevolutioninstitute.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/83D56F29-FA75-4239-B2CF-815215900708

07/01/2025

Join us next Wednesday, July 9 at 6:30 p.m. for an author’s talk featuring historian Zara Anishanslin, Ph.D., professor of history and art history at the University of Delaware, discussing her new book, The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution, published by Harvard University Press.

The American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with muskets and bayonets. On both sides of the Atlantic, artists armed with paint, canvas, and wax played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals. Drawing from her new book, Dr. Anishanslin charts the intertwined lives of three such figures who dared to defy the British monarchy—Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright—and who boldly risked their reputations and their lives to declare independence.

Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4eAeTnO

06/29/2025

Born in 1721—before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Britain’s American colonies—June 29 is widely celebrated as the birthday of Continental Army Major General Johann de Kalb. After joining the French military and fighting in the Seven Years’ War, Baron de Kalb was sent to North America in 1768 for several months to observe the mood of the American colonies and assess America’s bond with its mother country as the ideals of the Enlightenment washed across the Atlantic.

Following the outbreak of the Revolution, de Kalb met with Americans Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin in Paris. Promised commissions in the Continental Army, de Kalb and Gilbert du Motier, the marquis de Lafayette, journeyed together to America in 1777. Landing in Georgetown, S.C., they traveled north to join forces with George Washington and encamped with the Continental Army during the winter at Valley Forge. As the war’s focus shifted to the southern theater after several more years of action, Major General de Kalb—a valiant leader on the field of battle—fell mortally wounded while leading Maryland and Delaware troops during the Battle of Camden in South Carolina. He died three days later—August 19, 1780.

Learn more about Baron Johann de Kalb and the Revolution’s contingent of foreign volunteers with our short 1776 Year in Revolution: Foreign Volunteers classroom video at: https://bit.ly/4lb4SzJ

Images:

Baron DeKalb Introducing Lafayette to Silas Deane From the original Picture by Alonzo Chappell… New York: Martin, Johnson & Co., c.1856. The Society of the Cincinnati.

De Kalb Eng.d by H. B. Hall & Sons New York. c.1909. The Society of the Cincinnati

06/28/2025

On this day 249 years ago, June 28, 1776, American and British forces fought the Battle of Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. The 10-hour bombardment from Royal Navy ships on the unfinished American fort on Sullivan’s Island, manned by about 400 men, failed to subdue the fort. The unlikely American victory in the face of British aggression galvanized support for independence in the South on the eve of Congress declaring a formal separation from Great Britain.

South Carolina Patriot Benjamin Mazyck wrote this letter from Charleston at “10 o’Clock at Night” as the Battle of Sullivan’s Island came to an end. “The Contest of our freedom or abject Slavery commenced this day,” he declared to his brother-in-law Capt. Daniel Ravenel. After recounting the course of the fighting—“the Greatest Cannonading that was ever in America before”—Mazyck related some of the activities in the city during the battle. “As soon as the Engagem’t begun, the Crown officers & Tories were carried to Roupels House under a guard, a seizure made on their papers &c. The monies in the Treasury &c. sent out of Town to Dorchester this afternoon.” Charleston “is under arms this night,” he wrote, fearful that the morning would bring another bombardment from the Royal Navy and a renewed push from Clinton’s infantry—attacks that never came.

The letter, which remains in the Ravenel family, is generously on loan for display in our current exhibition, Revolutionary Beginnings: War and Remembrance in the First Year of America’s Fight for Independence.

Learn more at https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/exhibition/revolutionary-beginnings-war-and-remembrance-in-the-first-year-of-americas-fight-for-independence/

06/27/2025

The Battle of Monmouth was one of the last battles of the Philadelphia campaign and George Washington’s preparation was crucial to its outcome. The Continental Army completed a long march through hot weather and arrived near Monmouth Courthouse in New Jersey in 1778. The troops were prepared to attack the British column withdrawing from Philadelphia. General Charles Lee was given command to attack British General Henry Clinton’s rear guard. However, the failure of his advance forced Washington to personally ride into the battlefield where he rallied the retreating troops and reorganized the lines. The battle showed improved professionalism of the army under Washington’s steady leadership.

Image:
Plan de la bataille de Montmouth où le Gl. Washington commandait l'Armée américaine et le Gl. Clinton l'Armée anglaise, le 28 juin 1778. The Society of the Cincinnati.

American Revolution Institute

07/12/2025

07/11/2025

07/10/2025

07/08/2025

07/05/2025

07/04/2025

07/03/2025

07/02/2025

07/01/2025

06/29/2025

06/28/2025

06/27/2025

Address

Opening Hours

Website

Alerts

Contact The Museum

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm
Saturday	10am - 4pm
Sunday	12pm - 4pm