Supporting scholarship and promoting popular understanding of the American Revolution is central to the work of the American Revolution Institute. The Institute welcomes distinguished scholars and authors to share their insights and discuss their latest research with the public at Anderson House through lectures, author's talks and panel discussions. The Institute also hosts a variety of other historical programs throughout the year, including our Lunch Bite object talks, battlefield tours, special Anderson House tour programs and other events. Many of the events we offer are free.
April 2023
Lecture – The Surveyor’s Eyes: Mapping Empire in the Era of the American Revolution
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British surveyors came to North America and the West Indies in unprecedented numbers. Their images of coastlines, forts and frontiers helped win the French and Indian War and pictured a triumphant British Atlantic world. The American Revolution shattered this vision of peace, commerce and settlement. Once tasked to promote an expansive American empire, wartime mapmakers applied their knowledge to make war on American colonists. Max Edelson, professor of history at the University…
Find out more »Lunch Bite – A Scrapbook Documenting Isabel Anderson’s Gift of Anderson House to the Society of the Cincinnati
Larz Anderson, the great grandson of a Revolutionary War officer, was a devoted member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Upon his death in 1937, his widow, Isabel, oversaw the gift of their Washington, D.C. home, Anderson House, to the Society of the Cincinnati. Formalized in 1938, the Andersons’ gift provided the organization with the headquarters building it still uses today. For posterity, Isabel collected newspaper articles, images, and other related materials that highlighted the philanthropic act, compiling them in…
Find out more »May 2023
Virtual Event – The 2022 Society of the Cincinnati Book Prize Lecture
The 2022 Society of the Cincinnati Prize honors Col. Kevin J. Weddle and his book A Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution. Following the successful expulsion of American forces from Canada in 1776, the British were determined to end the rebellion and devised what they believed to be a war-winning strategy. They sent Gen. John Burgoyne south, expecting to rout the Americans and take Albany. When British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga with unexpected ease in July of 1777, it…
Find out more »Lunch Bite – Society of the Cincinnati Eagles of the Twentieth Century
Join the Institute’s deputy director and curator, Emily Parsons, for a Lunch Bite object talk focusing on Society of the Cincinnati Eagles of the twentieth century. The Eagle insignia of the Society of the Cincinnati is one of the most historic American medals and has been worn by members at meetings, dinners, ceremonies, and other events for more than two hundred years. Designed in 1783 by Pierre-Charles L’Enfant—a French-born artist, Continental Army officer, and original member of the Society—the Society’s…
Find out more »Lecture – On Tea, Taxes and World History: The British East India Company and the Origins of the American Revolution
In May 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which instituted a tax of three cents per pound on all British tea sold in America. The act effectively granted a monopoly on the sale of tea in the American colonies to the British East India Company, which was looking to reduce its excessive stores of tea and relieve its financial burdens. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Tea Act’s passage, James Vaughn, a historian of the British Empire at the…
Find out more »