Revolutionary Beginnings: War and Remembrance in the First Year of America’s Fight for Independence

The War for American Independence began on April 19, 1775 — 250 years ago this spring — with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. These initial engagements gave way to the Patriots’ Siege of Boston, a nearly year-long effort to drive the British from the city. But the fighting during the first year of the Revolution did not just take place in Massachusetts. From April 1775 to June 1776, Patriot, Loyalist, and British forces clashed in most of the thirteen American colonies, as well as Canada and the Caribbean. This exhibition explores three of those conflicts — the Battle of Bunker Hill outside Boston (June 1775), the Siege of Quebec in Canada (December 1775), and the Battle of Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina (June 1776), which took place just days before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Through letters, maps, prints, paintings, and artifacts, Revolutionary Beginnings reveals the importance of these lesser-known battles and the extent of the rebellion across the American colonies in its first year. The exhibition also examines how these three battles have been remembered and commemorated, both in the immediate aftermath as well as generations later.

Revolutionary Beginnings features more than forty objects from the Institute’s collections as well as several museum and private collections. Contemporary maps and plans document the course of these battles and provide insights into why the victors prevailed. Letters and journals of participants and observers reveal the different perspectives of individuals on both sides of the battles. Prints, pamphlets, and orations produced soon after the battles mourn the losses, celebrate and defend the actions of the militaries and their leaders, and remind readers of their virtuous cause—for both the Americans and the British. And paintings, weapons, and other artifacts bring alive the world of the men and women who experienced the first year of the Revolutionary War. Among the highlights of the exhibition are a hanger sword carried by a Massachusetts minute man who responded to the Lexington Alarm, a British satirical print depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill in a woman’s fashionable hair style, an American soldier’s journal of the Canadian campaign and attack on Quebec, a British naval officer’s oil painting of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, and a mid-nineteenth century children’s toy depicting important events of colonial and revolutionary America, including all of the battles featured in this exhibition.

Support the Exhibition

This exhibition is only possible through the support of generous philanthropy. To support this museum exhibition, please click below to make a tax-deductible donation to the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, Inc.