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.
December 2018
Concert – Classical Holiday
Amanda Dame, flautist, and Chelsea de Souza, pianist, perform classical favorites for the holiday season. This is the last performance of the fall American Music Series. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Find out more »Author’s Talk – Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West, 1765-1776
Patrick Spero, director of the American Philosophical Society Library, discusses and signs copies of his book on the untold story of the Black Boys, a band of rebels on the American frontier in 1765 whose protests helped to spark the American Revolution. In 1765, as the Stamp Act riled eastern seaports, frontiersmen clashed with the British Empire over another issue: Indian relations. When British officials launched a risky diplomatic expedition into the American interior to open trade with the Indian warrior…
Find out more »January 2019
Lunch Bite – Highland Broadsword
British military historian and armaments specialist Paul Newman discusses a Highland broadsword, the iconic weapon of the Highland Scots in the eighteenth century. During the Revolutionary War, the basket-hilt broadsword was carried by Scottish infantrymen and some British dragoons in the Royal Army, as well as by Scottish immigrants to the Carolinas and Georgia who served in loyalist units. American troops captured Highland broadswords on the battlefield as well as from British supply ships. This example was used during the…
Find out more »Author’s Talk – Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America
President George Washington was determined to secure the Old Northwest—the region extending from the Ohio to the Mississippi—for American settlers, but a powerful Indian confederacy barred the way. Two successive military expeditions to take control of the region had ended in expensive and bloody disasters. Congressmen, reluctant to authorize a third, insisted that it was foolish “to send forth armies to be butchered in the forests.” Washington ignored them, and chose Anthony Wayne—a headstrong Continental Army veteran with a reputation…
Find out more »February 2019
Concert – A Cappella Pop
The Singing Capital Chorus presents a cappella music from the Great American Songbook, classic songs from film and more in this first performance of the spring American Music Series. As the DC chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, the Singing Capital Chorus is a premier a cappella singing group in the national capital region that has been ringing chords and entrancing audiences since its founding in 1945. The concert will last approximately one hour. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served…
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