June 2023
Lunch Bite – A Short-Barreled Blunderbuss From the Period of the American Revolution
Historical Programs Manager Andrew Outten discusses a British blunderbuss that was made commercially in London, ca. 1770-1780. A precursor to the shotgun, this weapon was often issued to cavalry or naval troops for use in close-quarter combat. This Lunch Bite will offer not only a detailed examination of a blunderbuss from the Institute’s museum collections, but also a discussion pertaining to the history of blunderbusses, their technical components and attributes and their various potential uses throughout the American Revolution. Registration…
Find out more »Author’s Talk – Prisoners of Congress: Philadelphia’s Quakers in Exile, 1777-1778
In 1777, Congress labeled a group of Philadelphia Quakers who refused to help defend the city against the imminent invasion by British troops as “the most Dangerous Enemies America knows.” They ordered Pennsylvania to apprehend them. In response, state officials sent twenty men—seventeen of them Quakers—into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for over seven months. Reconstructing this moment in American history through the experiences of four families—the Drinkers, Fishers, Pembertons and Gilpins—historian Norman Donoghue discusses how the…
Find out more »Author’s Talk – Washington’s Marines: The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777
In the early days of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress rushed to form an army but soon realized that, to win its freedom, America would need men who could fight both on land and sea. Enter the Marines. As Washington struggled to preserve his command after defeats in New York and New Jersey in 1776, the nascent U.S. Navy and Marines deployed the first American fleet, conducted their first amphibious operation, and waged a war on the rivers and…
Find out more »July 2023
Lecture – The Franco-British Struggle for Global Hegemony and the Career of Lt. Col. Dupleix de Cadignan, 1755-1784
Jean-Baptiste Dupleix de Cadignan (1738-1824) entered the French army’s Régiment de Bourgogne-Infanterie as a lieutenant on April 15, 1754, five weeks before his sixteenth birthday. That same day, he began a diary that forms the basis for his over four-hundred page, two-volume journal owned by the Society of the Cincinnati. Commencing in April 1755, when he embarked for Louisbourg, Canada, Dupleix de Cadignan's journal describes his experience as a prisoner of war in July 1758, his exchange the following year…
Find out more »Author’s Talk – South Carolina Provincials: Loyalists in British Service During the American Revolution
The Loyalists who supported the British during the American Revolution have frequently been neglected in accounts of that conflict. Nevertheless, Loyalists made significant efforts to assist British forces in restoring royal control of the thirteen colonies. This was especially true in South Carolina, where backcountry Loyalists under almost-forgotten leaders such as Joseph Robinson and Euan McLaurin challenged the Revolutionary movement in 1775. Although their initial efforts were unsuccessful, Robinson, McLaurin and hundreds of their followers eventually made their way to…
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