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.
August 2019
Lunch Bite – A Collection of Images Illustrating the Art of War in the 18th Century
Bénédicte Miyamoto, associate professor at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and a fellow in the Institute's library, will present highlights of manuscript maps, fortification drawings and artillery diagrams in the Institute's collections that illustrate the art of the war in the eighteenth century. Military engineers, draftsmen and topographers received artistic training that was used to produce these documents, which were vital tools in eighteenth-century warfare. Artistic skills were not only needed for in-situ sketching, but were also required to produce a wealth of…
Find out more »September 2019
Author’s Talk—The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington
Historian and professor Martha Saxton discusses and signs copies of her recently published book The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington, the first biography of George Washington’s mother based on archival sources. Her son’s biographers have, for the most part, painted her as self-centered and crude, a trial and an obstacle to her oldest child. The records tell a very different story. Mary Ball, the daughter of a wealthy planter and a formerly indentured servant, was orphaned young and…
Find out more »Concert – Classical Violin
Akiko Kobayashi, violin, and Eric Siepkes, piano, perform works by well-known composers including Béla Bartóka, a Hungarian-born composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist, and Igor Stravinsky, a Russian-born composer, pianist and conductor, who became American citizens and New Yorkers in their later years. The concert will last approximately one hour. This is the first date in the fall American Music Series, which celebrates the history and variety of American music genres. About the Performers New York-born violinist Akiko Kobayashi is an active solo and…
Find out more »Lunch Bite – Isabel Anderson’s Overseas Service in World War I
Sabine Fisher, museum collections manager, presents a scrapbook and medals from Isabel Anderson's overseas service with the American Red Cross during World War I. Isabel—already an active Red Cross member when the Great War broke out—was one of nearly thirty thousand American women who volunteered to serve with the organization on the Western Front. Her work in canteens and military hospitals in France and Belgium earned her honors from both nations, including the Croix de Guerre and Médaille de la…
Find out more »Author’s Talk—Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution
When Congress declared independence in 1776, it cited King George III “for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.” In Quarters, John Gilbert McCurdy explores the social and political history behind this charge, offering the first authoritative account of the housing of British soldiers in America. Providing new interpretations and analysis of the Quartering Act of 1765, McCurdy sheds light on a misunderstood aspect of the American Revolution. Quarters also unearths the vivid debate in eighteenth-century America over the meaning…
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