May 2024
Author’s Talk—The Promise of Freedom for Slaves Escaping in British Ships: The Emancipation Revolution, 1740-1807
To Blacks, Britain’s Emancipation Revolution rang out louder than the Declaration of Independence. Drawing from his recent book, historian Theodore Corbett traces the emerging path of freedom for Africans and African Americans in the late-eighteenth century by discussing major social shifts and political events in Great Britain and her American colonies—the Great Awakening, Lord Dunmore’s proclamation and the American Revolution—to demonstrate how they all led to Parliament’s abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807. Registration is…
Find out more »June 2024
Author’s Talk—Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution
John Trumbull experienced the American Revolution firsthand by serving as an aide to American generals George Washington and Horatio Gates and being jailed as a spy. Throughout his wartime experience, he made it his mission to record the conflict, giving visual form to the great and unprecedented political experiment for the citizens of the newly formed United States. Although Trumbull’s contemporaries viewed him as a painter, Trumbull thought of himself as a historian. Drawing on his new book, historian and…
Find out more »Concert—Music from the Life and Tour of Lafayette
During the marquis de Lafayette’s 1824-1825 farewell tour, he was celebrated in each city and town with processions, banquets, receptions, worship services and visits to important sites—many of which included music written for the occasion. To commemorate the bicentennial of Lafayette’s return to the United States, this special concert features David and Ginger Hildebrand of the Colonial Music Institute performing and discussing various musical pieces created during Lafayette's life and especially his farewell tour of America—including some that are part…
Find out more »Lunch Bite—An 1830s Model of HMS Roebuck
Museum Collections and Operations Manager Paul Newman discusses an 1830s model of HMS Roebuck, a forty-four-gun British frigate that saw extensive service during the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1774, the Roebuck found itself performing blockade duty on the Delaware River as early as 1775. The Roebuck later patrolled off Long Island and took part in the attacks on Forts Mercer and Mifflin and the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, before it returned to Great Britain in 1781. This presentation…
Find out more »July 2024
Lecture—“A Perilous Voyage for our Company”: The Misadventures of James Selkirk on the Chesapeake Bay
Historian and documentary editor Robb Haberman examines the perilous voyage of Sgt. James Selkirk and the Second New York Regiment on their way to Yorktown in September 1781, when their transport schooner was separated and ran aground while sailing from Baltimore to Williamsburg. Using Selkirk’s unpublished papers, this talk examines his harrowing experience and the endurance of the Continental forces during the Yorktown campaign. Registration is requested. To attend the lecture in-person at Anderson House, or to watch virtually, please…
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