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.
May 2024
Dupont-Kalorama Museum Consortium Walk Weekend
Join us and six of our partner museums in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., that will be open free of charge for this annual festival featuring special exhibitions and activities. Participating museums are Anderson House, Dumbarton House, The Phillips Collection, The President Wilson House, The National Museum of American Jewish Military History, The O Museum in the Mansion and Dupont Underground. For additional information, visit www.DKMuseums.com. Advanced registration for Walk Weekend tickets is encouraged, but not required. For…
Find out more »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…
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