October 2018
Author’s Talk – American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era
Born in the aftermath of the American Revolution, the Society of the Cincinnati was created to preserve the fraternal connections forged by the officers of the Continental and French armies on the battlefields of the new United States. Framed on the Revolution's ethical ideal of honor, the members of the Cincinnati pledged, "to promote and cherish, between the respective States, that union and national honor so essentially necessary to their happiness, and the future dignity of the American Empire." Led by…
Find out more »Lunch Bite – Recruitment Broadsides
Michele Lee Silverman, research services librarian, discusses recruitment broadsides for the Revolutionary War. As America’s war for independence from Great Britain continued into 1776, the Continental Army faced depleting resources, including hundreds of soldiers whose enlistment terms were set to expire. The army needed to encourage soldiers to reenlist and entice even more to join. Broadsides, a single sheet of paper with print on one side, offered a quick and inexpensive method for the army to advertise their initiatives and…
Find out more »Livestream – The American Revolution on the Spanish Borderlands
Lexington, Valley Forge and Yorktown are familiar, but few Americans have ever heard of the capture of Mobile or the Siege of Pensacola—events that were critical to the outcome of the Revolutionary War, the future of the American South and the lives of the people of the Gulf Coast. In the 2018 George Rogers Clark Lecture, Professor Kathleen DuVal draws on more than a decade of research to illuminate the American Revolution on the Spanish borderlands, where Spanish and British…
Find out more »Lecture – Skull, Severed Heads and Skeletons: Battlefield Clean-up during the American War of Independence
Battlefield clean-up is a topic rarely covered by modern historians. However, following almost any military engagement, corpses need to be buried. Who disposed of these corpses and how can we tell who buried whom? Were officers and other ranks buried together or separate? Just in time for Halloween, Dr. Bob Selig, historian, will try to answer these and related questions about burying the dead during the American War of Independence. The lecture will last 45 minutes with time afterwards for questions.
Find out more »November 2018
Lunch Bite – A portrait of an American loyalist
Portraits of American loyalists depicted in the uniforms they wore when they fought against the patriot cause are rare. This recently acquired oil painting is of Colonel James DeLancey of Westchester County, New York, who led several loyalist cavalry and infantry units during the Revolutionary War. Attributed to itinerant artist John Durand, the portrait was painted ca. 1778-1782. Join Deputy Director and Curator Emily Schulz Parsons for a discussion of this painting, DeLancey's activities during the Revolution and eighteenth-century depictions…
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