Calendar of Historical Programs

Historian Thomas E. Chávez focuses our attention on Spanish participation throughout the American Revolution through a discussion of Spain’s grand strategy during the war; the contributions to the Spanish war effort of Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, a Spanish official working for Spain’s Ministry of the Indies; to the Spanish war effort and the interactions of Benjamin Franklin with key Spanish officials—from his early correspondence with the prince of Spain through his election as an honorary member of the Spanish Royal…

For eight grueling years, American and British military forces struggled in a bloody war over colonial independence. This conflict also ensnared Native American warriors and the armies and navies of France, Spain, the Dutch Republic and several German principalities. From frozen Canada to tropical Florida and as far west as the Mississippi River, the Revolutionary War included hundreds of campaigns, battles and skirmishes on land and sea in which soldiers and sailors fought and died for causes, crowns and comrades.…

Between December 12–19, 1777, Gen. George Washington and his Continental Army encamped in the towering hills of Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles from Philadelphia. Known as the threshold to Valley Forge, the Gulph Mills Encampment is often forgotten or minimized, falling between the more famous military engagements of the Philadelphia Campaign and the well-known experience of the army at Valley Forge. Yet, the Gulph Mills Encampment was a pivotal microcosm of the Revolutionary War and the issues that confronted the…