Video Library

The Institute’s video library is a growing resource of recorded lectures, videos designed for the classroom, collections features and exhibition tours, ranging from just a few minutes to over an hour. Browse by category or use the search bar below to look for a specific topic or speaker across our website.

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Lectures, Author's Talks & Panels

The Cutting Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in the American Revolution

Wayne Lee
March 13, 2025

Historian Wayne E. Lee of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill discusses Indigenous warfare before and during the American Revolution. Throughout the Revolution, Indigenous warriors sought to surprise their targets, and the size of the target varied with the…

Threshold to Valley Forge: The Six Days of the Gulph Mills Encampment

Sheilah Vance
March 4, 2025

Between December 12–19, 1777, Gen. George Washington and his Continental Army encamped in the towering hills of Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles from Philadelphia. Known as the threshold to Valley Forge, the Gulph Mills Encampment is often forgotten or…

From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points of the Revolutionary War

John Maass
February 11, 2025

For eight grueling years, American and British military forces struggled in a bloody war over colonial independence. This conflict also ensnared Native American warriors and the armies and navies of France, Spain, the Dutch Republic and several German principalities. From…

Don Troiani’s Black Soldiers in America’s Wars: 1754-1865

John Rees
January 29, 2025

Historian John Rees discusses his recent collaboration with historical artist Don Troiani highlighting the participation of African American soldiers in America’s early wars that combines Troiani’s dramatic art with Rees’ heavily researched text. Drawing from his research and…

Lunch Bite Object Talks

The 1775 Orderly Book of A Massachusetts Officer

Thomas Lannon
February 21, 2025

The Institute’s library director, Thomas Lannon, discusses the orderly book of Edmund Bancroft. Initially a non-commissioned officer in Col. William Prescott’s Regiment from May-December 1775, Edmund Bancroft was likely a participant at the Battle of Bunker…

A 1780s Chinese Porcelain Punch Bowl Depicting the Battle of the Saintes

Paul Newman
November 8, 2024

The Institute’s museum collections and operations manager, Paul Newman, for a Lunch Bite object talk highlighting a recent acquisition for our museum collections: a Chinese porcelain punch bowl depicting the Battle of the Saintes. Produced around 1783, the punch…

An 1830s Model of HMS Roebuck

Paul Newman
June 21, 2024

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…

Classroom Videos

The 1775 Orderly Book of A Massachusetts Officer

Thomas Lannon
February 21, 2025

The Institute’s library director, Thomas Lannon, discusses the orderly book of Edmund Bancroft. Initially a non-commissioned officer in Col. William Prescott’s Regiment from May-December 1775, Edmund Bancroft was likely a participant at the Battle of Bunker…

The First French Map of the United States

Rachel Nellis
May 2, 2024

In this segment of Collections Corner, the Institute’s research services librarian, Rachel Nellis, highlights a rare map from our Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection, Carte des Etats-Unis de l’Amerique suivant le Traité de Paix de 1783, engraved…

A Handkerchief Commemorating the Reign of King George III

Paul Newman
November 17, 2023

Museum Collections and Operations Manager Paul Newman discusses a handkerchief commemorating the reign of British monarch King George III, made ca. 1812. The large printed handkerchief chronicles contemporary events in a lavishly decorated manner and includes several portraits of notable…

An Allegorical Portrait of a French Naval Officer

Emily Parsons
October 31, 2023

Deputy Director and Curator Emily Parsons discusses an allegorical portrait from our museum collections. Completed in 1783 by Parisian artist Nicolas René Jollain, the painting depicts Thomas François Lenormand de Victot, a fallen French naval officer from the Revolutionary…

Statues of Nathan Hale

Emily Parsons
September 22, 2023

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” The words Nathan Hale is said to have uttered just before being hanged as a spy by the British are among the best remembered of the…

Collections Corner

The First French Map of the United States

Rachel Nellis
May 2, 2024

In this segment of Collections Corner, the Institute’s research services librarian, Rachel Nellis, highlights a rare map from our Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection, Carte des Etats-Unis de l’Amerique suivant le Traité de Paix de 1783, engraved…

An Allegorical Portrait of a French Naval Officer

Emily Parsons
October 31, 2023

Deputy Director and Curator Emily Parsons discusses an allegorical portrait from our museum collections. Completed in 1783 by Parisian artist Nicolas René Jollain, the painting depicts Thomas François Lenormand de Victot, a fallen French naval officer from the Revolutionary…

The Patriot’s Monitor

Stacia Smith
August 28, 2023

It’s back to school season! To celebrate, this month’s Collections Corner features the Institute’s director of education, Stacia Smith, discussing The Patriot’s Monitor, an 1810 American primer written by Rev. Ignatius Thomson of Pomfret, Vermont. As…

French Military Treatises of the Eighteenth Century

Joe Stoltz
June 26, 2023

Coping with the sunset that followed Louis XIV’s death, battered by a string of costly military defeats, and influenced by the intellectual currents of the Enlightenment, the French army was primed for reform in the mid-eighteenth century. Scholar…

Early French Eagle Insignias of the Society of the Cincinnati

Emily Parsons
May 13, 2023

The Society of the Cincinnati’s Eagle insignia has been the most recognizable symbol of the organization and its members for more than two hundred years. Designed in 1783 by Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, the double-sided gold insignia bears…

Exhibition Videos

Fete Lafayette: A French Hero’s Tour of the American Republic

June 27, 2024

On the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the American Revolution, the marquis de Lafayette embarked on a tour of the United States, returning for a final time to the country he helped established and whose republican form of government…

Saving Soldiers: Medical Practice in the Revolutionary War

March 1, 2022

Explore our exhibition Saving Soldiers: Medical Practice in the Revolutionary War in this short video tour featuring a few highlight objects. Drawn principally from the Institute’s collections of rare books, manuscripts, portraits and artifacts, Saving Soldiers examined medical practice…