and when i clicked on the left hand side of the watercolor, this popped up and my heart just about stopped. because what you're seeing is a little hilltop right? there's a tent on the very top and then a little group of tents slightly down the hill. now, most of tents, if you remember that image i showed you right at the beginning of the two different, the engraving with the two different kinds of tents, and one of them had the end entrance and one of them had the side entrance. 90% of the tents you'll see in the in the period have that end entrance. george washington's tent has that side entrance. and you can see in that detail, there's like a little bower and it's like a little shade in front of it. looks like a jungle gym. but you can see indicated that this thing looked an awful lot like george washington, this tent. and then i remembered a quote, because i've been researching this tent forever by a french officer who was present at this spot at the end of the revolutionary war. this is a journal that he writes about noticing a little hill which looked over the camp and an assemblage of tents which i recognized easily as the

quarters of general washington. this is it for planck's point in 1782. so let's locate you where we're talking about in space here. this is a map showing that the washington rochambeau route. so in 1781, the french army is up around newport there in rhode island, most of washington is is in the hudson highlands. and so that is in this area right here. they steal a march partly by land, partly by sea, and they block up cornwallis army at yorktown. there's an image showing you the area of the hudson highlands. so to zoom in a little bit, the spot we're looking at about six miles north of new york city, and it's the first spot where the hudson river starts to narrow enough and it gets into a hilly country. this was the important crossing point in a place called king's ferry. so if you can imagine if you're

in new england, new york, the middle colonies, the only way you have to communicate to send troops back and forth because new york is occupied by the british, is using these ferries that are through this this this area of any of, you know, bear mountains. dylan sang a song about a bear mountain picnic years ago. that's all right. in this area here. so this area was probably one of the most militarized zones in america during the revolutionary war in terms of skirmishes, the dedication of troops. so on the west bank or the arrows indicating forts montgomery and clinton were built in 1776, peekskill, new york was a place where there were continental army stores. these were attacked by the british in 1777 as they're trying to link up with the burgoyne expedition west point itself is founded in 1778 and becomes a very important depot and military post for the continental army. of course, down below, stony point is a is a place where the

british seize an american troops under anthony wayne, captured in 1779 and on the east side were planck's point. and that's going to be the most important spot here for the next couple of minutes is the point of land that sticks out, and that is the place where king's ferry was located, very, very strategic for the british and americans want to try to control this. and then later in the war, further up north in the new windsor and newburgh area, that's where the continental army will have its sort of final cantonment at the end of the war. so now we're trying to figure out we have this watercolor. we had about two weeks to figure out is this thing real? what is it? is that really george washington's tent? who can we find to help us try to acquire this piece? so we're doing a lot. of course, i'm summarizing about two weeks of research, but it was a lot of hours and a lot of hands. so the first thing we found and this was up in harvard in the library, but it did come from washington's papers. his biographer, jared sparks, had been given access to washington's papers by the

family in the early 19th century, but he sort of borrowed them all and he didn't give most of them back. and so they ended up sort of scattered in all kinds of places. but this is an extraordinary map. it's dated september of 1782, and it is overplaying its point. and we're going to zoom in here and i'm going to show you some arrows here. so aouple of important points, because i want to show you a painting in a second. we're going to match this up. what you're seeing here, first all, is a little hilltop up with a triangle on it and three little triangles right below it. maybe you can make that it says headquarters. you got a little hill with a fort on it, off to the left there, right along the bank of the river, you've got these little long rectangles with letter number combinations and what you're seeing is two j, at's the second new jersey regiment, one y, that's the first new york regiment. so you can see a line of encampments there along along

the point and then you see those little dotted lines. there's a row that's coming from the river and it's leading up to that hill that says headquarters. now, the other important document here is one of my favorite portraits of george washington. i don't think it looks the most like him, but it was painted by john trumbull as a personal gift to martha washington in 1790. and john trumbull had actually visited he actually was present at four plagues point and notes in his correspondence that he took sketches and careful measurements and really paid attention to the layout of this camp. and this is a painting that he did gave to martha washington. it descended with her in her family until henry dupont bought it h.f.. dupont bought it for the winter term museum in the 1960s, so it still remained in the family and really wasn't very well known until really our lifetimes but often the distance so you have washington with his charger up on this hill but take a look

behind the knees that you're seeing here. can you see a little hill off in the distance with a fort on it? you can see a line of encampments, of tents along there. and it will be difficult for you to see. but if you can see, there's an interruption in the little white tents and some sort of little structure that sticks up. we're going to talk about that in a second. and then you're going to see a line. what you're seeing are two lines of american troops. this last arrows showing you most clearly a pair of flags. one of them is recognized as the stars and stripes. right. so those are a american regiments that are lined up with their flags in the center. and the french army is marching between them because this was the reunify nation of the french soldiers who had partnered with washington and beaten cornwallis at yorktown. and they'd stayed in virginia for that winter of 1781, 82. and washington's army had

marched up to the hudson highlands because, remember, the british still occupied new york. the french were marching back to boston to be picked up by ships to go to the west indies. i have never figured out. maybe adam knows, but don't know why they didn't just pick them up in virginia. but anyway, they had to walk all the way to boston and they're going to cross the hudson river at king's ferry this was very significant for washington because, remember, we all think the war's over when cornwallis surrenders, there's two more years until. the treaty of paris, it was very uncertain, george. the third was not prepared to give up his north american kingdom. and so washington had to show the french that the continental army were good, strong. they were ready to stay in the fight. and so this is the moment when the continental army was the best dressed, the best drilled, the best uniformed as they ever were, because it was really a diplomat show. and what you're seeing here is that moment of that french army

passing in review to be reunited with with the continental army at four planes point. now, another man who was present there, he was actually an englishman named george grieve. he was there with roche and be's army again wrote in his diary that opposite the camp and on distant distinct inces stood the tents of some of the general officers over which towered predomina tt of general washington. so you see, we're starting to feel a little bit more confident that we're looking at general washington's tent. and he goes on to say that he'd ll the camaning the military camps in england from many of which drawings and enavings had been taken. but this w tly a subject worthy of the pencil of the first artist, because he had no idea that john trumbull was there. and whoever the artist is that's going to produce this watercolor image. now, what he's thinking of is this tradition of drawing these large views of military camps.

this is thomas sam b. this is during the 1740s in scotland at fort probably what he's thinking about in 1782 is just recently there have been a large encampment in st james park in london. in response to the gordon riots and his brother paul sam had done these watercolor images, many of which were engraved. and so you're seeing one of those engravings from 1780. so this is something that is clearly in the mind of george grieve and also presumably whoever is producing this great big watercolor. so when you dig into the details again, if you clicked in and spent the time looking at it, as fortunately not many other ople, did you see all this incredible detail? can you see how similar that line looks to what was in the back of trimble's painting and even in the center? do you see there's this line of tents and there in the center is some sort of raised structure in the middle. so clearly these two artists, we're seeing that in describing the same thing. well, then we went to the

diaries and journals and letters of people who were actually present. and here a french officer who's writing, describing the color line of the american camp bordered by a beautiful arbor decorated with design ins and coats of arms, very well executed that represented those different regiments. this is a rhode island soldier who talks about they were encamped in a single line with elegant bowers built before the tents. so what's a bower? well, civil war photography is probably theleest way to show that it's sily creating a structure of samplings and greenery to provide shade. remember, this is late summer, a march into this encampment at the d august it was probably a lot of days like today. and that's what you want is shade. what's fascinating is if you look through the orders during this period, they're there from the end of august to the beginning of october. if any of you have cut brush in your yards, right? and you throw it out back. you notice that after what about, a week, those leaves of old withered and dried.

about a week and a half after they construct this arbor, washington starts giving orders, saying, for the love of god, make sure the soldiers do not have any candles or open flame near this thing, or we're going to have a big roman candle experience in all the tents of the army are going to burn up. i love when there's moments when you can sort of bring your personal experience of lawn care to the study history. but that was that's how we were then able to figure out what you're seeing in the background. it's not just lines of white tents, but there was this strange, you know, green haze floating over them. well, they're building these bowers. and then there's this description of these design lines. well, most of them were just these non descriptive little high places. they looked like little boxes or something, except in one case we were able to make out a distinct shape where everybody venture to guess what they're seeing. they're that shape and anchor. we're in the whaling museum, for goodness sakes. yes, the anchor. and the anchor is the symbol of

a state which is rhode island. that officer, that french officer whose quote that i read, by the way, this is a drawing he did a little watercolor in his diary of one of those rhode island regiment soldiers. now, this was a regiment that had large numbers of african-american, american, indian and mixed race men and several companies in 1781. and so that's an eyewitness image. and they had that anchor emblazoned on their cap. it's on their buttons as well. and there it is on that armor as they're representing themselves in the encampment. now, this is not as weird as it sounds. you can athis is a practice that continues here is the 50th new york engineer's in petersburg, virginia, during the civil war, doing similar sort of greenery exercises. it's amazing what yodohen you have time in camp and you can do arts and crafts. now this also, this image helped us to understand some other

descriptions that didn't make a lot of sense. when i'd read them without seeing this image. so, for instance, i want to just remind you, this is the little cluster of tents that are below what we're presuming is washington's tent at the height and its interesting there's you'll see three marquee tents. you can see the kind of vertical lines those are the seam lines from the roofs and then the two on the left have little shades, a little bauers in front of them and then this wonderful like triple arched veranda that's sticking out from the largest tent in the background there, which i presume to be washington's dining tent. if you remember, i mentioned he had his sleeping an office tent. he has this big meeting tent, and it helped to explain this, quote, this french officer who we we were noblemen, who was along with the army, who talks about a day when this review when the french and british army were were exercising for one another. he talks about an entertainment, meaning a dinner of more than 90 covers that were served with

true military magnificence in the pretorian of the consul, for i rather express myself thus then by saying in the tent of the general, i guess he didn't feel that was his snobby. so this is actually a 1 to 1 record ofhington's dining tent. we didn't bring that along on this trip, but we also have a stitch for stitch copy of shington's dining tent. and as you can see with those figures in there for scale, you can't imagine how 90 people could possibly be seated under the canvas. but if you think about that little extension there, there's probably the the answer to how this officer maybe wasn't exaggerating at the number of guests. so all these kind of details are coming together. now, remember, the clock is ticking while we're figuring this stuff all out and convincing, we got to go after this thing. so the one other piece of art

that really cinched the deal for us was realizing that it was related to another watercolor. the one on the bottom here has actually been in the collection of the library of congress since the 1920s. and what you're seeing is looking from the east bank of the hudson across at the future site of the united states military academy at west point. it's a little bit more finished, a little bit more colored than the four planks point one. but it is also made by joining sheets of paper together, careful pen and ink and watercolor work. i'll show you a few details here and thinback to those images i showed you from scotland and england. those camps means this is very much in that in vein of showing these little vignettes. in fact, some of the details in here are so good that it allowed us to precisely date within probably a month of when this was done. if you see this on the left, you see thisfficer who's kind of indicating or pointing with a cane, and then soldier with his ms at attention next to him

and if you look at his shoulder, there c you make out a chevron or upside down v on his sleeve? so in august of 1782, washington issued an der for veteran continental soldiers whoad served at least three years in the war. eyere entitled to what he called the badge of merit. and so this was chevron they were able to wear as a badge of their long veteran status. and so we knew that even though library of congress had dated this to 1778, they thought this data to win west point was really beginning to be fortified. this tells us that this is done at the same time as that encampment at four planks point in 1782. now that west point water color had been donated with a group of papers from. another french officer, pierre charles long form. now, you know, we all heard of long form plaza in washington, d.c. he long for came over as a young man, served as an engineer

in the continental army. he was part of the group that founded the society the cincinnati. he actually designed badge of the society and the certificates. he, of course most famous for designing the the street layout for washington, d.c., but long form fell into hard times. he did not receive as many of these veterans of the revolution and officers. they didn't necessarily receive great pensions. they often were owed back pay that they never received. loan fund didn't receive most of the money that he was owed for this design work that he did. so he was quite impoverished in his late years and he basically became what was called a permanent houseguest. anybody have any of those in their families, they're of this man, thomas atwood diggs of basically lived the river from mount vernon in maryland and so in the 18 teens, 1820s, and he's living with the diggs family. when thomas diggs passes away,

1821, he goes to a nephew, william dudley diggs. and this is an engraving of green hill. this is where law enforcement ultimately dies and is buried on dudley. william dudley diggs state and a lot of his papers then stayed with the family. so the grandson of william dudley diggs is a man named james dudley morgan dies. in 1919, he became as a as a child, you know, he's he's raised by his grandfather. he's has these stories about long form, this eccentric frenchman who had served with george washington becomes very interested in animator goodbye. this story kind of pulls a lot of these long form papers together. he ultimately donates that watercolor in these papers. he also arranged this for long for his body to be disinterred and moved to arlington cemetery. and so there you see him. in 1909, ironically, i'm getting ahead of myself.

but the same year the tent comes into the possession of our organization and the house you see in the background. we're going to talk more about in a minute. but that is the custis lee, home of of arlington that you all know so well. and we are just yards from the tomb of the unknown soldier there for those of you who know arlington. but this was all important. this seems like a seems like a distraction. but at the very bottom of that auction record was this. notice here that t pan watercolors were found among the papers of thomas diggs of maryland. and that showed us that, in fact this came from the same batch of family papers that this other batch of long form material. so we convinced ourselves in these two weeks, 14 days, we worked through the weekends that this was george washington's tent, that it was four planks point, that it was by pierre charles charles de gaulle fault, that it was related to this west point watercolor. and therefore, we have got to get this. so the next challenge is you

have to pick up the phone and call people and try to figure out what is this thing going to bring. because surely other people are gonna figure this out. how important this object is. so, bill and laura, i don't know if we called you, but we might have called you. we were calling friends of the museums, you know. will you help us if we're if we're successful in this auction? and i actually have an actual photograph of myself at the moment that the watercolor was sent. and i want to thank my wife, donna, in the back, who took hospring in iceland at theg in a ecise moment we had to hike three miles ou we t back to cell service. and then i got the i got the text from our chief of story and phil mead, who said we got it. and then i was like, oh, how much? and there were only two bids. and i think the hammer was.

like $12,500 for this incredible piece. that was surely missing missing zeros. i've since talked to a couple of significant archives and one clerk at the society, the cincinnati and no one basically got past that first image of just seeing this kind of muddy looking watercolor and dug into the into the story. so here it is actually. when it arrived. that's phil mead and i taking a look at it this was there was a new york times photographer there and literally while we're standing there, the conservator mentioned to us, she said, oh, did i mention that there's some writing on the back, the watercolor? no. and so there and that's a little hard to make out. but what you're seeing is verb plank, point camp. and what's remarkable is it is unmistakably in the hand of pierre laffont. so we were able to nail it down, get the whole story together. we conserved them, we had it. we did a little exhibition, if you're interested. we did a catalog of that

exhibition called among his troops that is available on the website. and we're hoping to bring of the story back out in a new exhibition that we're going to do in 2024. so why does any of this matter? there's our french officer. we've been reading quotes from from the regiment, royal dupont, and he writes this letter about washington at four planks point. and this comes all the way back to that first letter from the new york provincial council. and when we took up the citizen soldier, we did not lay the citizen. and remaining in the tent in the field, he wrote that washington was on the point of taking a house, meaning moving into a ho for his headquarters when he decided to set an example to his soldiers by living in camp. and then he goes on to say, he foreigners who see thiseven the extraordinary man cannot resist. according him, their admiration and respect. now think that spot that

washington picked, the highest spot there, 8000 american soldiers, many of them have been in the field for three, five, seven years at this point. and the first thing they see when they crawl of their tents and those tents are all in a single row that are all facing that hilltop. is general washington in his tent? and it's the last thing they see if they look over their shoulder as they're crawling in to their to their crowded tents in the evening. and that power that comes from remaining in the tented field gives washington the ability to diffuse one of the first great challenges that faces the republic. and that is this dangerous moment at the end of every revolution of demobilizing an army. so these are two images that i like to juxtapose. we're all used to seeing those photographs of abraham lincoln in 1860 and 1865. right. and that is half the time that

george washington remained in the tented field. and even though these are artist portraits, i think you can really see the transformation, the physical toll that it took, perhaps not in his weight, but certainly in his face of remaining in the field. i mean, look in those eyes, this is a portrait that washington sat for, for the american artist joseph in november of 1783. so at the very last encampment of the continental army in new jersey, this is in rocky hill, new jersey, now, just a few months earlier in march of 1783, a group of continental army officers in newburgh, new york, came together. they were dissatisfied with how congress was treating them. they felt they had not been provided for. they had ventured their lives. they had ventured their fortunes. they had suffered wounds. they had no prospect of any kind of pensions, any kind of half pay after the war. and they were contemplating things like, well, maybe we'll just march to the west and let the british and new york march

to philadelphia, maybe will march on congress, maybe we will make washington a king or some sort of ruler. so these ideas, these very dangerous ideas are out there and they gather together in washington, gets wind that they're going to come together for this really illegal meeting where they are breaking the bonds of what military men should be talking about relative to civilian control of the military. and that's when he gives a prepared speech and the original in his hands survives at the massachusetts historical society. i had the great pleasure years ago standing with david mccullough and holding that original newburgh address in my hands, which was absolutely incredible. but washington folds up that speech, and he says to the man that he had just received a letter from congress that he was going to read to them that was addressing some of their concern. and he takes a pair of spectacles out of his pocket. and it may have been the

greatest piece of theater in american history, because none of those men you know, they didn't get to go in the tent. they didn't see his eyesight failing. and he puts these spectacles on and he says, uh, i've never left your side one moment. but when called from you on public duty right, i've been the constant companion and witness of your distresses. he's evoking being in the tented field. and then he goes on and says, i have not only grown gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. and i like to think that men who had literally charged into the mouths of cannons all sat there and wept. and he brought that room down and saved the republic from this terrible danger. then you all know the story after he sits for that portrait in new jersey, he marches to annapolis. this is where congress is meeting. why is congress in annapolis? not because it's nice in the fall. and the oysters are better. it's because philadelphia is considered so dangerous. there are literally continental

army soldiers like marching around with bayonets saying, we want to see our congressmen some things don't change over time, right. and so congress to be to be safer has moved down to annapolis. and this is a painting that john trumbull does later, of course of washington returning that same commission to congress, which is, of course, the act that george the third to ask, famously asked benjamin west, the ameran paieryou know, what will washington do at the end of the war? well, 'll go back to his farm. he says if he does that, he'll be the greatest man in history. now, the story of the tent, then the tent returns to mount vernon with washington. it's put in storage right near the storehouse, right near the mansion house. this is an image of the next generation and of it's of it's a journey on the far right hand side. the african american figure you see is believed, to be frank, that is william leaves. so the younger brother and frank

acted as the kind of steward of the house at mount vernon. his sons. so william lees, nephew in the 19th century, becomes the caretaker of washington's tent. so this is a story that has the involvement of many hands. but the little boy on the left, this is martha washington's natural grandson and the adopted grandson and son of george washington, george washington park, custos will be the one who ultimately inherits the tent. there's the storehouse at mt. vernon, where we know it was stored until washington's death in 1799, when martha washington dies in 1802, george washington park custis. here he is painted around the time of the war of 1812, purchases a lot of the furnishings, a lot of the objects from mount vernon, including washington's field equipment and his tents, and takes them to the home that he builds called arlington on a height overlooking the new federal city, there's a watercolor from the early 19th century course. this is a bit of a ne'er do well and he's definitely traded on

having a really, really famous adopt it grandpa. and so a lot of what he does in the early so the first quarter of the 19th century is use earlier today as a place to showcase his connection to mount vernon to display these portraits the silver, the objects of the washing and family. he writes anecdotes about george washington's tent. you see a few of them here in prin he invitesrtts. he invites antiquarians to come. tha's an engraving done by the famous benson lawson that's showing washington's tent their inheir duffel bags, essentially with the poles that were displayed in the 1840s at arlington. so there he is shortly before his death, photographed by matthew brady, his daughter mary and randolph custis marries the man.

who graduated first in his class from west point. robert edward lee. here he is in his blue uniform. as my colleague hannah belcher here in the audience likes to say. in 1861, robert ely got a new job and that required him to leave his home of arlington house. and here's a photograph with it, because it's being occupied wide by federal troops on the strategic height overlooking washington. now, many of the washington relics, the paintings, the silver were taken away. but the things they couldn't take away, including washington's tent. martha washington's china, washington's field headquarters. tents were packed away in. the basement and the key was entrusted to the woman on the right, selina gray, who was a mrs. robert ear lee's servant. and sort of thsteward of the house. while the soldiers start breaking in because soldiers like souvenirs, right? e tually breaks in and cuts a piece of the tent roof for a souvenir, starts taking books out of storage. and so she wants to be really

saved of the responsibility and turns the key over to the union commander. he's in profile slightly of center irvin mcdowell and he orders that those objects or allows those objects to be taken into washington where they're displayed in the patent office. now, of course, national portrait gallery. they remain in sort of federal custody, even though the lee family claims their ownership all through the end of the 19th century, their loan, philadelphia, they're sent for the centennial. here's image probably of the dini tentn splay during the centennial exhibition. it's not till 1901 that president mckinley finally returns these items to the lee family, and shortly thereafter they're taken out of the smithsonian. this is in front of the old brick castle there at the smithsonian. the tents re taken out, set up and photographed maybe 1900 in 1905. you're looking in the end entrance of the dining tent, the sleeping in office tent, the first oval office you see often

the background. they've just got the roof of it up. and if you can make out the fellow in the straw bowler cap, that's a smithsoan curator who's actually cooking with washington's original mess kit, which is definitely frowned upon by curators and conservat orders today. but that sort of brings us full scale speed. then back to that moment where mary custis lee, the last surviving child, decides that has a responsibility to care for der her father during the war.ed and so the confederate widows home is being constructed basiwhere the virginia museum of natural history is today in richmond. an d that she's going to put up for sale. washington owns two tents that have survived to raise $10,000 to endow this widow's home. here's a photograph of her and part of that article, that interview with her, she said that she wanted independence hall in philadelphia to be the proper place for them to be

displayed. she hoped that the patriotic citizens of the city would purchase them by popular description. now, that article published in 1906, comes to the attention of this man, the reverend w herbert burke, who was an episcopal priest in norristown, pennsylvania, just west of philadelphia. he had a dream to build a chapel dedicated to george washington at valley forge, and it actuay survived to the present day. the washington memorial chapel. and he also hoped to build a museum of american there. so burke persuaded some wealthy philadelphians to put a down payment of $500 on on the tent in august of 1909. he takes the train to washington, d.c. he brings it to valley forge. he places it on display in that building. he does what we do as museum directors today. they have a souvenir postcard made that they would sell to try to raise funds. they actually set up the tent out in the snow at valley forge. again, not not condoned by

curators today. it w they had a special case built for it. now, of course, it's large that they couldn't set up fully indoors. there you see it in the case that burke had constructed, e's an original surviving ticket from the collection. $0.15 to go see the tent. and we actually have the original visitor book. it's wonderful. the painter, howard pyle. we know the day that he visited and he actually did a little remark of a george washington figure in the side of the book, just another image there. and if you see the framed piece that's on the end there, that is actually george washington's original commander in chief. standard. that was another piece that came in the end of the collection. that's still part of the collection here at the museum. during the 1970s, it was loaned to the national park service. some of you may remember visiting valley forge around the bicentennial or into the early 1990s. and that's an image of the tent set up and on display there at the park service. but it wasn't until the museum opened then in 2017 that the

collection and tent had a permanent location. and here is just to give you a few images of this, of the the experience you come into a small theater. we basically tell a version, the story that i've just spent time telling you here, because the first thing people would ask me for years when i was giving talks like this is how do you know it's george washington's tent? and so you have to kind of take you through the whole story of martha washington and george washington, per us and arlington and lafayette and down the line. so you get a sense of that through a very dramatic presentation. this is the moment every time i can if you listen carefully, you'll hear people go, oh, i didn't know that. you know, the connection to robert e lee and mary cautiously, you can see we start to bring up a screen and have a scrim and to dramatically begin to reveal the tent. it's a it's a real object theater, a kind of present nation. and then it comes into its full glory. you can imagine there's a there's a soundtrack that just puts the hair on the back of

your neck on end. we take you through different seasons, different settings. that's my shadow playing george washington, walking back on the wall there. and it's an extraordinary experience, really a signature experience for the museum. i just want to end with just a few images to just you a sense of the because many of you have not visited the museum. that's just of course, one separate experience. we have a 16,000 square foot core exhibition and this is the way you come up. you recognize that painting at the top of the stair. that's washington and rochambeau at the french officers at yorktown and a copy of a painting that hangs at versailles. um, and you go up on the second floor, i call it a movie you can walk through because we really tried to create a very immersive experience of the founding of the nation. so some areas are very artifact rich. there's about 500 works of art and objects. we do lots of rotations. there were refreshing the stories that we tell.

we use media in certain ways to animate and explorehe stories of some of those objects. we're very big on immersive spaces, so massachusetts gets its due with the liberty tree here. there's tually a piece of the last surviving liberty tree. that's actual wood from, a liberttree that stood on the grounds of what's now st john's college in annapolis, marynd and blew down in a hurricane in 1799. and someone donated a board and i thought, wt e we going to do wh this? and then we came up with this idea to make it a touchable element. and i think kids respond to tha better than the touch screens, to be honest. it's absolutely fabulous. so a lot of tactile, interactive. this is a gallery we're talking about the declaration of independence. yes, we have a privateers, a board that we use as a as a programing space. right in the gallery. so when our school groups are coming through, we're not busing them from the classroom room to another classroom. they're actually going and learning in the galleries here, a real emphasis on group

learning, on intergenerational learning, interactivity, kind of the final experience you have. and it's really quite shocking to people, not the least of which was ken burns, because i took him through a few years ago. he's working on a ten part series about the about the american revolution. and i got to this spot and he never thought there are actually photographs because. about 150 people who were alive, the revolutionary war, some of them were soldiers, some of them were children at the time. all of life and backgrounds actually into the age of photography. and so that war, you see, is about half of those photographs backlit very dramatically with little capsule biographies of these real people. and, you know, the magic of being able to look in the eyes, a person who's been photographed is worth a thousand. i'm sorry, john trumbull, a thousand. john trumbull paintings. and so our school groups, they go through we have a program

called their eyes where each kid is given a character card. at the beginning. and these are young people and they're you know, my person was enslaved. my person was a soldier, my person was a quaker all back. and they're sharing those stories each other as they're going through and starting to form this kind of empathetic connection to a person. you know, what would my have thought about the declaration, independence or the washing out and crossing the delaware and the surprise is at the end is they get to that wall and every one of those characters is a real person d love standing down there and seeing these fifth graders who are trying to find their person and suddenly have seen the world through the eyes of a person different than themselves and the very thing is, we wanted some w to kind of have a strong message at the very end. so we just put different sized mirrors on the wall with the words meet the future of the american revolution. and this is really the message the museum is that this is not

just a story set long in the past. it may as well be orcs and wizards know who can really knows what happened a couple hundred years ago. it's really about getting them to see in the past, struggling with imperfect information and not knowing what the concept of their actions will be. trying to deal with problems. whether it's individuals, whether it's communities. and how did this system of government that we have arise out of this most unlikely of places and then understanding that the system only continues if people take up the challenge. and so we positioned those mirrors and you can kind of get indition of that if you look above those children's heads when they're looking at themselves, those mirrors, all those people are looking over their shoulders. and it is incredible. can stand down there and have a conversation with these kids and ask them, you know, what do you think this means? and you'll often say, we, are there is this is everyone equal

today? is everyone enjoy equality in them? no no, no. and are there problems that we need to solve and just a couple of weeks ago, i was down there and this great fifth grader was like he didn't know the word inflation, but he said things are really expensive. so, yes, you know and you know. well, who's now there's no king. right. so who who's responsible for solving those problems? and when they do this and point to themselves, you just go, oh. message, message received. so just a last couple of images here. one of the other programs we're really proud about is the citizenship initiative. so we use the museum. we some donors who've contributed to allow us to offer a free course for legal permanent residents who are studying to become naturalized citizens. you know, so many of those hundred questions are rooted in the founding era. and so we use the museum as, the sort of textbook you can walk through to teach them for the

course we've had a couple hundred graduates of that program. we have, at last count, more than 20 new citizens who have now seen themselves as part of that story. i always ask them when we do, we just had a naturalization ceremony on july 1st, you know, and i always ask these new citizens to go down and take their pictures in front of those mirrors, because you are part of the story now. and so it's something that really brings us a great deal of joy. we're also really about and you can probably get an indication of this from the tent art project there. we love arts and crafts. we like the tactile experience of engaging young people, not just computers. you know, for me, a screen is the last thing i want to do. it's really, how can i move them through touching something through a similar. and so actually ruth raise your hand wchlags did you so. the french and british flag so yeah we nine women who are into

hior you know edwork and textiles last year to do this true cols oject so it was doing all the flags that would be carried aboard an american iveer ship. you know, they didn't just fly the betsy ross flag. you you would fly british flag if you thought you wouldn't encounter a british ship, you would fly a portuguese, spanish. you try to slip around. and the only rule you could not fire at the enemy until you had shown your true. so you had to fly that american flag or you'd be treated as a pirate. and so that's been a great a great project. we've got gallery so lots of living history interpretation in galleries. we also do special. so right now liberty dawn troy on these paintings, the revolutionary war, don triana is probably the most renowned contemporary history artist, particularly specializing in early history. and the revolution is his sweet spot. this is the first time we've ever had a full retrospect of of his work, and that's at the

museum labor day. and that is paired with about 50 original objects from his collection and other private collection. so a lot of things you wouldn't normally see on public display. looking ahead to 2026, this, of course, is the 2/50 of the declaration independence. and we're doing an exhibition called the declaration's journey starting in 1776. but looking at what has been the impact of declaration on people through, a quarter millennium, 250 years of american history, how has it inspired people like frederick douglass and the suffragists and abraham lincoln all the way to dr. martin luther king and people around the world to kind of shape the world that we live in. and finally, i'm probably the thing i'm most proud of is when the museum opened in 2017, we were number 438 of things to do in philadelphia. and this week we are number six of things too in philadelphia that is a screen capture from tripadvisor caesar. so warshooting our way.

to the top. we're not sure how we're going to knock eastern state penitentiary off the list there, but the philadelphia museum, the barnes hall, very solid choices with the museum of the american revolution. check out our website is a cover of our last annual report. tons of information we have tons of digital programs. all of our evening programs like we're doing here tonight, we do hybrids. you can zoom in from wherever you are. so if you're interested in becoming a member and kind of staying connected with us, but at the very least, please do come visit philadelphia, visit the museum. i i'd be shocked if you did not fall in love with us. thank you all very much and book tv. >> welcome, to