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Museum of the American Revolution collection
Notifications
Held at: Museum of the American Revolution [Contact Us]123 Chestnut Street, Suite 401, Philadelphia, PA, 19106
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Museum of the American Revolution. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Museum of the American Revolution focuses on the history of the rebellion of the North American colonies against British rule that resulted in the formation of the United States of America, covering a period that ranges roughly from the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, through the Revolutionary War, until the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The Museum also chronicles the development of the idea of independence over history and in the United States after the end of the war.
The core of this collection is items from the Revolutionary era (1775-1783), but there are also items pre-dating the war that provide context for the Revolution, and items post-dating the war that demonstrate its aftereffects, the evolution of independence and revolutionary ideas, the lives of veterans, commemorations of soldiers and of Revolutionary sites (especially Valley Forge, Pa.), and related topics. The collection includes letters, financial documents such as supply receipts, muster rolls, genealogical information, military commissions, orderly books, photographs, property-related documents, and printed materials (largely from the Colonial/Revolutionary era) including newspapers, ephemera, lithographs, and pamphlets. Many prominent historical figures are represented in the collection, including George and Martha Washington and their descendants, Baron von Steuben, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and others. An item-level inventory is available on-site.
The bulk of the materials in this collection were assembled by the Valley Forge Historical Society. Circa 2003, the Valley Forge Historical Society transferred all of its holdings to the National Center for the American Revolution, a non-profit that was later renamed the Museum of the American Revolution.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Museum of the American Revolution directly for more information.
People
Organization
Subject
- Revolutions
- United States--History
- United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
- United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783
Place
- Publisher
- Museum of the American Revolution
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Sarah Leu through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Museum of the American Revolution for information about accessing this collection.