News

Thomas Pinckney Arrives Home

. . . and looks amazingly good for a man his age! The latest acquisition of the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati—Samuel F.B. Morse’s extraordinary portrait of the Revolutionary War hero and fourth president general—arrived on December 6 from Philadelphia, where we bid successfully for him at Freeman’s auction on November 12. The acquisition was supported by generous members of the Society, state societies, and Associates of the American Revolution Institute. The next step: conservation of the canvas and frame. Samuel F.B. Morse, a skilled portrait painter, is better known as the inventor of the telegraph and Morse Code. Our library director, Ellen Clark, may be looking for a hidden message in dots and dashes.

To learn more about Pinckney, read the blog here. To support the acquisition and conservation of the portrait, go here and choose Pinckney Portrait Acquisition.

Events

Nisbet Balfour’s Letter Book of 1781

As the British commandant of occupied Charleston, Lt. Col. Nisbet Balfour played a strategic role in evaluating and transmitting information, money and supplies north to Henry Clinton and south to Banastre Tarleton during the southern campaign. On December 13 at 12:30 p.m., join Historical Programs Associate Kathleen Higgins for a discussion of Balfour’s letter book of 1781 and what it reveals about the war in the South.

Exhibitions

America’s First Veterans

Over a quarter of a million Americans served in the armed forces that won our independence. Those who survived became America’s first veterans—the world’s first veterans of an army of free men. This exhibition explores their stories and traces how the American republic finally acknowledged its debt and expressed its gratitude to the soldiers who secured the nation’s freedom.

Blog

Margaret Corbin, Revolutionary

Liberty is commonly depicted as a pretty young woman in a white classical robe, kindly in peacetime, steel eyed and determined in war. This personification of Liberty is grounded in Roman depictions of the goddess Libertas, who was honored with a temple on the Aventine […]