Supporting scholarship and promoting popular understanding of the American Revolution is central to the work of the American Revolution Institute. The Institute welcomes distinguished scholars and authors to share their insights and discuss their latest research with the public at Anderson House through lectures, author's talks and panel discussions. The Institute also hosts a variety of other historical programs throughout the year, including our Lunch Bite object talks, battlefield tours, special Anderson House tour programs and other events. Many of the events we offer are free.
March 2023
Art in Bloom DC 2023
Back by popular demand, Art in Bloom DC returns to Anderson House on March 27-30, 2023! This popular event fills our historic headquarters with dozens of floral arrangements inspired by the art and architecture of Anderson House. Art in Bloom provides a unique opportunity in the nation’s capital to stroll through the museum at your own pace, viewing interpretations of specific artworks, furnishings and architectural details rendered in a floral medium by some of Washington’s most creative and innovative floral…
Find out more »April 2023
Lecture – All the World’s a Stage: The Role of Architecture and Interior Decor in Entertaining at Anderson House, 1905-1929
Anderson House, the winter home of Larz and Isabel Anderson between 1905 and 1937, stands as a testament to all that was gracious and in good taste in entertaining during the waning decades of America’s Gilded Age. An architectural masterpiece based on the English late Baroque period, with elements from the French Beaux-Arts tradition, the house was designed as both a splendid stage upon which the social status and careers of the couple could be promoted and advanced, and as…
Find out more »Lecture – The Surveyor’s Eyes: Mapping Empire in the Era of the American Revolution
In the second half of the eighteenth century, British surveyors came to North America and the West Indies in unprecedented numbers. Their images of coastlines, forts and frontiers helped win the French and Indian War and pictured a triumphant British Atlantic world. The American Revolution shattered this vision of peace, commerce and settlement. Once tasked to promote an expansive American empire, wartime mapmakers applied their knowledge to make war on American colonists. Max Edelson, professor of history at the University…
Find out more »Lunch Bite – A Scrapbook Documenting Isabel Anderson’s Gift of Anderson House to the Society of the Cincinnati
Larz Anderson, the great grandson of a Revolutionary War officer, was a devoted member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Upon his death in 1937, his widow, Isabel, oversaw the gift of their Washington, D.C. home, Anderson House, to the Society of the Cincinnati. Formalized in 1938, the Andersons’ gift provided the organization with the headquarters building it still uses today. For posterity, Isabel collected newspaper articles, images, and other related materials that highlighted the philanthropic act, compiling them in…
Find out more »May 2023
Virtual Event – The 2022 Society of the Cincinnati Book Prize Lecture
The 2022 Society of the Cincinnati Prize honors Col. Kevin J. Weddle and his book A Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution. Following the successful expulsion of American forces from Canada in 1776, the British were determined to end the rebellion and devised what they believed to be a war-winning strategy. They sent Gen. John Burgoyne south, expecting to rout the Americans and take Albany. When British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga with unexpected ease in July of 1777, it…
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