The Museum of the American Revolution (formerly The American Revolution Center) is a museum in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
dedicated to telling the story of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. The museum was opened to the public on April 19, 2017, the 242nd anniversary of the
first battles of the war, at Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775.
Overview
The museum owns a collection of several thousand objects including artwork and sculpture, textiles and weapons, manuscripts and rare books. Permanent and special exhibition galleries, theaters and large-scale tableaux portray the individuals and events and engage people in the history and continuing relevance of the American Revolution.
Morris W. Offit serves as the chairman of the Board of the Directors. Dr. R. Scott Stephenson was named president and CEO in November 2018. Philadelphia area media entrepreneur and philanthropist
H. F. "Gerry" Lenfest served as chairman of the board of directors from 2005 until 2016 and was instrumental in leading the Museum to its opening in 2017.
Location
The museum is located in the historic heart of Philadelphia, the city that served as the headquarters of America's founding. The site is across the street from the
First Bank of the United States and two blocks from
Independence Hall
Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers. The structure forms the centerpi ...
, the
National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center is a non-profit institution devoted to the Constitution of the United States. On Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center is an interactive museum and a national town hall for constitutional dia ...
,
Second Bank of the United States
The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ...
,
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
,
Carpenters' Hall
Carpenters' Hall is the official birthplace of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a key meeting place in the early history of the United States. Carpenters' Hall is located in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, ...
, and the
Liberty Bell.
Design and construction
The building was designed by
Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP (RAMSA), is an architecture firm based in New York City. First established by Robert A. M. Stern (as Stern Hagmann Architects) in 1969, it is now organized as a limited liability partnership with 16 general partne ...
(RAMSA), and on June 12, 2012, RAMSA partner and
Driehaus Prize winner
Robert A. M. Stern
Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known a ...
unveiled designs for the permanent location. Groundbreaking for the museum occurred in fall 2014.
The museum rises three stories above the street and, with a full basement, encompasses 118,000 total square feet, with 32,000 dedicated to exhibits and interpretive spaces. The first floor includes a museum shop and the Cross Keys Café which opens to the sidewalk. The first floor interior is organized around a skylit central interior court and features a cross-vaulted ticketing lobby, a multi-use theater and a changing exhibition gallery. The second floor features 18,000 square feet of galleries and a theater dedicated to the exhibition of George Washington's marquee tent. The museum's third floor offers rooms for events and two terraces overlooking the First Bank of the United States, Independence National Historical Park, and the Philadelphia skyline beyond. The museum is seeking
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification.
The museum opened on 19 April 2017.
Outdoor plaza
The Museum's outdoor plaza opened on 25 September 2016. It is accessible to both museum visitors and to passersby, and feature dramatic installations of Revolutionary War artifacts, bronze sculpture, shaded seating, and – once the museum building opens, seasonal café seating.
Exhibits
Visitors follow a chronological journey from the roots of conflict in the 1760s to the rise of armed resistance, the
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...
of
1776
Events January–February
* January 1 – American Revolutionary War – Burning of Norfolk: The town of Norfolk, Virginia is destroyed, by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces.
* Januar ...
through the final years of the war. Visitors see the diversity of revolutionary-era Americans and their opinions, for example by viewing an
Oneida Indian council house, and the 1773 volume ''Poems on Various Subjects'' by
Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly ( – December 5, 1784) was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Gates, Henry Louis, ''Trials of Phillis Wheatley: Ameri ...
, America's first published black female poet.
Several immersive gallery experiences feature a full-scale replica of Boston's
Liberty Tree, the recreation of an Oneida Indian Council, the Battlefield Theater featuring the
Battle of Brandywine, a recreation of
Independence Hall
Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers. The structure forms the centerpi ...
, and a large model of an 18th-century privateer ship. A dedicated theater houses an iconic surviving artifact of the Revolution: General Washington's Headquarters Tent, which served as both his office and sleeping quarters throughout much of the war.
The Museum's president and CEO, formerly the Vice President of Collections, Exhibitions, and Programming, Dr. R. Scott Stephenson holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
. Stephenson is a specialist in colonial and revolutionary American history and material culture with a background in visual storytelling. Dr.
Philip C. Mead, Chief Historian and Director of Curatorial Affairs, holds an M.A. and PhD in American History from Harvard University.
Other historians who have been consulted on the project include:
Richard Beeman (University of Pennsylvania),
Vincent Brown (Harvard University), Thomas Chavez (National Hispanic Cultural Center),
Thomas J. Fleming (writer and novelist), James Hattendorf (US Naval War College),
Don Higginbotham (University of North Carolina),
Pauline Maier
Pauline Alice Maier (née Rubbelke; April 27, 1938 – August 12, 2013) was a revisionist historian of the American Revolution, whose work also addressed the late colonial period and the history of the United States after the end of the Revolut ...
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Holly Mayer (Duquesne University), Thomas McGuire (Malvern Preparatory School),
David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States ...
(Yale University),
Gary Nash
Gary Baring Nash (July 27, 1933 – July 29, 2021) was an American historian. He concentrated on the Revolutionary period, slavery and race, as well as the formation of political communities in Philadelphia and other cities.
Life and education
Na ...
(University of California, LA),
Ray Raphael (University of California, Berkeley), Matthew Spooner (Columbia University),
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (born July 11, 1938) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian specializing in early America and the history of women, and a professor at Harvard University. Her approach to history has been described as a tribute to ...
(Harvard University), and
Gordon S. Wood
Gordon Stewart Wood (born November 27, 1933) is an American historian and professor at Brown University. He is a recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992). His book ''The Creation o ...
(Brown University).
Collection
The Museum of the American Revolution has a collection of several thousand objects. The museum's collection includes items owned and used by General
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
during the
War of Independence
This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence.
List
See also
* Lists of active separatist movements
* List of civil wars
* List o ...
, an extensive collection of historic firearms and edged weapons, important art, important manuscripts, and rare books. The collection started by Rev.
W. Herbert Burk in the early 1900s makes up the core of the collection.
Some items have been displayed at George Washington's
Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...
,
Valley Forge National Historical Park
Valley Forge National Historical Park is the site of the third winter encampment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, taking place from December 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778. The National Park Service preserves the site a ...
, the
National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center is a non-profit institution devoted to the Constitution of the United States. On Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center is an interactive museum and a national town hall for constitutional dia ...
, the
Winterthur Museum
Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour," Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home o ...
, the
Senator John Heinz History Center
The Senator John Heinz History Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is the largest history museum in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. Named after U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III (1938–1991) from Pennsylvania, it i ...
and the
North Carolina Museum of History
The North Carolina Museum of History is a history museum located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It is an affiliate through the Smithsonian Affiliations program. The museum is a part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives ...
.
Highlights include:
*
George Washington's tent
* Silver camp cups from Washington's field equipment
* Wartime correspondence and books from Washington's library
* The
thirteen-star flag known as the Commander-in-Chief's Standard
* The fowling piece carried by Captain David Brown, leader of a company of minutemen from
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the confl ...
, and a British military musket carried by a soldier of the
4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot, both of whom participated in the
first battle of the War of Independence, April 19, 1775.
* ''A Dreadful Scene of Havock'', Xavier della Gatta's painting of the
Battle of Paoli
The Battle of Paoli (also known as the Battle of Paoli Tavern or the Paoli Massacre) was a battle in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought on September 20, 1777, in the area surrounding present-day Malvern, Pennsylva ...
* ''The
Battle of Germantown'', by Xavier della Gatta (1782)
*
William B. T. Trego
William Brooke Thomas Trego (September 15, 1858 – June 24, 1909) was an American painter best known for his historical military subjects, in particular scenes of the American Revolution and Civil War.
Biography
William B. T. Trego was b ...
’s iconic 1883 painting ''The March to Valley Forge''.
* Soldiers’ letters and orderly books as well as volumes owned by
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first a ...
,
George Mason
George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...
and other founders
* Volume of ancient Roman history by the author and historian
Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
, owned by George Mason
* A copy of the first newspaper printing of the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...
, printed by the ''
Pennsylvania Evening Post
''The Pennsylvania Evening Post'' was the first daily newspaper published in the United States, and was produced by Benjamin Towne from 1775 to 1783. It was also the first newspaper to publish the United States Declaration of Independence.
Histor ...
'' on July 6, 1776
* British plan of the
Battle of Brandywine
*
Hessian headgear
Selections from the collection
File:The March to Valley Forge William Trego.png, ''The March to Valley Forge'', William B. T. Trego
William Brooke Thomas Trego (September 15, 1858 – June 24, 1909) was an American painter best known for his historical military subjects, in particular scenes of the American Revolution and Civil War.
Biography
William B. T. Trego was b ...
(1883)
File:1776 Continental Currency.jpg, Continental Currency (1776)
File:Declaration First Newspaper Printing.jpg, First newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence, ''Pennsylvania Evening Post
''The Pennsylvania Evening Post'' was the first daily newspaper published in the United States, and was produced by Benjamin Towne from 1775 to 1783. It was also the first newspaper to publish the United States Declaration of Independence.
Histor ...
'' (1776)
File:Plan of the Battle of Brandywine.jpg, Plan of the Battle of Brandywine (1777)
Awards
In 2012, the museum received the MUSE Award (Silver level) from the
American Alliance of Museums
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
in the category of Mobile Applications, recognizing the museum's American Revolution Interactive Timeline iPad app.
In 2017, the museum received the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award in the category of Preservation Planning for Washington's War Tent.
In 2017, the museum was nominated for a Leading Cultural Destinations Award 2017 – “The Museum Oscars” – for Best New Cultural Destination of the Year, North America.
In 2017, the museum's digital interactives by Bluecadet won a Communication Arts 2017 Design Annual Awards.
In 2017, the museum won an Award of Merit from the British Guild of Travel Writers.
In 2017, the museum was named ''Engineering News-Record''’s Best Projects 2017 Award of Merit in the Cultural/Worship Category.
In 2017, the museum was named ACE 2017 URBAN PROJECT OF THE YEAR.
In 2018, the museum received an Excellence in Exhibition Award for Special Achievement for engaging audiences in something they think they know in new ways from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).
In 2018, the museum received PA Museums' Institutional Award for Washington's War Tent.
In 2018, the museum was awarded an AASLH Award of Merit.
In 2018, the Institute of Classical Architecture recognized the Museum of the American Revolution with its Stanford White Award in the category of commercial, civic, and institutional architecture.
References
External links
*
{{subject bar , portal1=Philadelphia , commons=y
Historical societies of the United States
History museums in Pennsylvania
Museums in Philadelphia
Museums established in 2017
Military and war museums in Pennsylvania
American Revolutionary War museums in Pennsylvania
Robert A. M. Stern buildings
Museums established in 2000
2000 establishments in Pennsylvania
Cultural infrastructure completed in 2017
New Classical architecture