At the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown immersive films, exhibits, hundreds of objects and experiential displays bring Virginia’s historical events to life.

Award-winning film “Liberty Fever”

Catch “Liberty Fever” – an award-winning introductory film – shown every 30 minutes throughout the day in the theater. The film draws visitors into the world of Revolutionary America and sets the stage for indoor gallery and outdoor living-history experiences. It is narrated by an early 19th-century storyteller who has traveled the country gathering stories about the American Revolution and shares his accounts using a moving panorama presentation of the time period. The film received the American Alliance of Museums 2017 Gold MUSE Award.

American Revolution Timeline

The American Revolution timeline, bordering a 22,000-square-foot exhibition gallery, provides a visual journey from the 13 British colonies in the 1750s to westward expansion of the new United States in the 1790s. A nearby wall display, “I Was There,” features seven individuals who lived during the Revolution and survived long enough to have their likenesses preserved in the mid-19th century by the new technology of photography.

Exhibition Galleries

Hundreds of objects in the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation’s diverse American Revolution collection of military equipment, maps, paintings, engravings, furnishings and personal effects are permanent fixtures in the exhibition galleries.

Acquisitions are selected to illustrate specific exhibit themes. This includes iconic artifacts such as:

• A rare July 1776 broadside of the Declaration of Independence, adopted more than a year after fighting began.
• A June 1776 Philadelphia printing of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, one of the inspirations for the U.S. Declaration.
• A coronation portrait of King George III from the studio of Allan Ramsay symbolizes British rule.
• An eagle-pommel sword inscribed with the year 1776 and the name of its owner.
• A portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, one of the two earliest known portraits done from life of an African who had been enslaved in the British colonies that became the United States.
• A first edition of Phillis Wheatley’s 1773 “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” the first book to be published by an African American.

The expansive galleries engage visitors in the tumult, drama and promise of the American Revolution through firsthand encounters with objects made and used by people of the period and an array of sensory experiences – re-created immersive environments, dioramas, interactive exhibits, video presentations and an experiential theater.

Five major themes are presented:

The British Empire and America

The British Empire and America examines the geography, demography, culture and economy of America prior to the Revolution and the political relationship with Britain. This relationship was set on a perilous course by Britain’s determination to exercise greater control over the colonies after the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763.

The Changing Relationship – Britain and North America

This gallery details the growing rift between the American colonies and Britain. Within a full-scale wharf setting, issues of taxation and importation are brought into focus. As opposition to British measures to tax and control the colonies mounted, the idea of Americans actively seeking liberty took root. In 1774, Patriots in Hanover, Pennsylvania, resolved to fight for their rights if necessary, proclaiming that, “Our cause we leave to heaven and our rifles.”

Revolution

The Siege of Yorktown film features portrayals of allied Generals Washington and Rochambeau, British General Cornwallis as well as Alexander Hamilton in his first military role in the Continental Army and his famous words – “Rush on boys!” – as the militia secures Redoubts 9 and 10.

The Revolution theme encompasses exhibits about weapons and tactics, military commanders and ordinary soldiers, and the new United States on the world stage. It also traces the war from the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 to victory at Yorktown in 1781 and the aftermath, and examines the motivations for American perseverance. Placed in the center of this part of the gallery is an exhibit on the Declaration of Independence, which includes a very early printing of this document. Hessian officer Johann Ewald observed of American troops that “one can perceive what an enthusiasm – which these poor fellows call ‘Liberty’ – can do!”

A 4D-experiential theater transports visitors to the Yorktown battlefield in 1781. The “Siege of Yorktown” is experienced with wind, smoke and the thunder of cannon fire. Actors portray:

• Allied Generals Washington and Rochambeau
• British General Cornwallis
• Joseph Plumb Martin, a member of the Continental Army’s Corps of Sappers and Miners who helped build fortifications at Yorktown
• Sarah Osborn, who followed the Continental Army with her husband and served food and coffee to the troops
• Alexander Hamilton in his first military role in the Continental Army

The wartime homefront is portrayed in re-created three-dimensional settings that provide a backdrop for the stories of diverse Americans – Patriots and Loyalists, women, enslaved and free African Americans – as they question, defy or contribute to the Revolutionary War effort.

The New Nation

The New Nation outlines the challenges faced by the United States in the 1780s – weak government under the Articles of Confederation, the unstable postwar economy and new social tensions – culminating with the creation of the Constitution as a framework for the future. A film depicts the resolution of many national issues through the Constitution, while others, such as slavery, are delayed for future generations.

The American People

This gallery explores the emergence of a new national identity influenced by immigration, internal migration, and demographic, political and social changes following the Revolution. This section explicitly compares and contrasts America after the Revolution with America before the Revolution, and shows how our nation’s struggle for independence impacted not just America, but the world.

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