McBurney
Recommendation: New Revolutionary War Exhibit at Smithsonian
We have some terrific new
Revolutionary War museums at Yorktown and Philadelphia, but we also have an
even closer exhibit in Washington, D.C., at least until next July. An
exhibit on “The American Revolution: A World War” just opened at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. There is also a
website showing some of the artifacts. This exhibit focuses on the siege
of Yorktown
which, when we count sailors as well as troops on land, involved more Frenchmen
than Americans. Among the items on display are paintings of The Siege
of Yorktown and The Surrender of Yorktown (see excerpt below), both
from 1786, and a Charles
Wilson Peale portrait of George
Washington from the early 1780s. All three originally hung in the Comte de
Rochambeau’s chamber as a reminder of his partnership with the
American general. This is the first time the canvases have been together in
more than two centuries. Shown in the exhibit is another early artistic
celebration of the Franco-American alliance: a French porcelain figurine from
the 1780s of King Louis
XVI and diplomat
Benjamin
Franklin. For the website, go to this link (and click on topics on
the left side of the webpage): http://americanhistory.si.edu/american-revolution