American Revolution Institute

09/03/2026

in 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the American Revolution and recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation. Negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, and Henry Laurens, the treaty secured American independence and established the boundaries of the new nation, marking the beginning of a new chapter in world history.

Learn more about the Treaty of Paris by watching one the newest videos from our Year in Revolution series!

This video chronicles the peace talks between America and Britain t...

09/02/2026

Applications are open for our 2027 research fellowships!

Our fellowship opportunities encourage the advanced study and publication on the importance and legacy of the American Revolution. Fellows receive support to engage with our library and museum collections related to their individual projects. The Institute is offering three different fellowship opportunities for 2027: Short-Term Research Fellowships, Long-Term Research Fellowships, and the Thomas Jay McCahill III Fellowship.

Our library collections include books, manuscripts, maps, and prints which support the in-depth study of eighteenth-century politics, culture, military history, and the art of war in the age of the American Revolution.

Learn more and apply! https://bit.ly/4qSpyQD

09/01/2026

Today we present an excerpt from the second letter written by Capt. Jonathan Birge from the New York campaign of the written to his wife, Priscilla, in Connecticut, September 1, 1776.

“After due regards to you & duely to my Honoured mother and Love to my Children I would inform you that I am well except for something of the Camp Disorder which makes me feel something feeble…wee have been in a very unsetled state ever since I came here…when the Regulars got Possession of L island we abandond Governers Isl & we had to sail in boats in fair shot of the Regulars canon…the shot struck very thick amoung the boats but never struck aney boat or hurt aney man but one…Abel Hawkens of Tolland he is yet alive in something & hopeful way to get well…John Jones is well…send me a letter as soon as you can…a desier of your Prayers for us & the success of our a***s against our cruel and malitous enemy…we hear that Capt Vissel is taken, Ebenezer Write is wounded in his leg & taken… & thus I conclude Jonth Birge”

View this letter in “The Field,” our digital archive and library catalog, at https://bit.ly/4cJJcIH, or wait to read the next installment in this series on September 24!

08/31/2026

We are thrilled to announce our upcoming fall programs that begin this Thursday, September 3!

Highlights from our upcoming program calendar include an author’s talk given by historian George Goodwin on his new book, Propaganda Wars of the American Revolution; an author’s talk featuring Professor Sarah Pearsall of Johns Hopkins University discussing her new book, Freedom Round the Globe: A World History of the American Revolution; an author’s talk featuring award-winning independent historian Patrick K. O’Donnell discussing his new book, Revolutionary Snipers: Washington’s Frontier Commandos Whose Marksmanship Forged a New Way of War and Helped Win the American Revolution; and a lecture given by Kenneth Cohen and Jennifer Jones of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History commemorating the 250th anniversary of the battle of Valcour Island through a discussion of recent conservation and research on the Gunboat Philadelphia.

Most programs are held in-person at Anderson House, but virtual options are often available. Explore and register for our fall programs at www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/events

08/29/2026

On this day, August 29, 1778, the Battle of Rhode Island took place—the first major joint operation of American and French forces of the Revolutionary War.

Their goal was to drive British troops from Newport, a key naval base. After the French fleet was damaged in a storm and abandoned the campaign, the Continentals and local militia attempted to hold their positions in the face of attacking British and German infantry and artillery.

Among the American troops in the battle was the First Rhode Island Regiment, which held its ground in the fierce fighting on Quaker Hill just north of town, helping to allow the eventual American retreat. The segregated unit consisted of free and formerly enslaved men of color led by Col. Christopher Greene and other white officers. Many of the men enlisted under Rhode Island’s Slave Enlistment Act of 1778, which allowed enslaved men to enlist in the army in exchange for their freedom.

The First Rhode Island Regiment is featured in our current exhibition, Voices of Revolution. On display on loan from the Rhode Island Historical Society is a muster roll for a company of the First Rhode Island recording the names of 35 enlisted men on the eve of the Battle of Rhode Island. Among them is Sharper Gardner of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The son of an enslaved Black man and Narragansett woman, he enlisted on February 27, 1778, and served until his discharge in June 1783.

Learn more about the exhibition online and see it at the museum through January 10, 2027.

https://bit.ly/4zM5fZ9

08/28/2026

For the first time, Britain will have a monarch whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution against the very crown he will bear. But what are Prince William’s family connections to the Revolutionary War?

Join us next Thursday, September 3 at 6:30 p.m. for an author’s talk featuring independent historian Stephanie Green discussing her new book, American Crown: From Revolutionaries to Royalty, The Story of Prince William’s American Ancestors. She will highlight William’s connection to the American Revolution and how past generations can shape the Prince of Wales’s role in the future of Britain, America, and the world.

Stemming from the roots of Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince William’s ancestry includes numerous American rebels. The Spencer family had a friendship with the Washington clan of Sulgrave Manor, whose family produced the first president of the United States. On Diana’s maternal side, American ancestors fought in the Revolution in New England, became successful in the new nation, and then sent a daughter across the Atlantic Ocean to marry into the British elite. Embodying more interconnected history than any of his predecessors, William’s sense of his own role in the world is markedly different from anyone who’s ever held the throne.

Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4qJM5z1

08/27/2026

250 years ago, the armies of Generals George Washington and William Howe clashed in one of the largest battles of the American Revolution: the Battle of Long Island.

Just weeks after declaring independence, Washington’s Continental Army faced its first great test. Determined to seize New York City, Howe landed a large army of British and Hessian forces on Long Island. Before dawn on August 27, the Crown forces exploited an unguarded route though the Jamaica Pass and struct the American left flank, while other forces engaged Continentals defending around Brooklyn.

The result was a devastating American defeat. Outmaneuvered and overwhelmed, Washington’s army fell back to Brooklyn Heights. With the East River behind them and Howe’s army in front, thousands of American soldiers faced the possibility of capture and the Revolution stood in jeopardy.

The battle did not end the American cause, though. On the night of August 29-30, Washington orchestrated a remarkable evacuation across the East River. Under the cover of darkness, aided by favorable winds and fog, about 9,000 soldiers slipped across to Manhattan, preserving the core of the Continental Army. The Battle of Long Island exposed enormous challenges confronting the nascent Continental Army, though it reinforced that its survival could be as important as a battlefield victory.

Learn more about the Battle of Long Island and New York City during the American Revolution by watching one of our Year in Revolution series videos.

08/24/2026

This past weekend the Institute teamed with members of the Society of the Cincinnati and more than 20,000 living history reenactors and spectators to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, the largest battle of the American War for Independence—in Prospect Park, at the [Old Stone House], and at the [the Green-Wood Cemetery]. Contents from our classroom traveling trunks—now poised to begin their journeys to schools nationwide—were a special draw in our effort to perpetuate the memory of the American Revolution!

#250

08/19/2026

Join us next Wednesday, August 26 at 6:30 p.m. for a lecture commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Long Island. Award-winning author and historian Patrick K. O’Donnell the battle that occurred on August 27, 1776, where Gen. George Washington found his troops outmanned and outmaneuvered. Thanks to a series of desperate charges by a single heroic regiment, the First Maryland Regiment—famously known as the Maryland 400—Washington was able to evacuate his men and the nascent Continental Army lived to fight another day. In this talk, O’Donnell brings to life the Battle of Long Island, along with and the remarkable men of the elite First Maryland Regiment.

Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4cQpawa

08/18/2026

, August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote was ratified. This milestone was the product of generations of women’s suffrage efforts dating back to debates over the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence.

In the spring of 1776, while John Adams was serving in the Continental Congress contemplating the subject of American independence, Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband, dated 31 March:

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors... If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

In 1848, the Seneca Falls “Declaration of Sentiments” claimed “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.” The same year, author Elizabeth Ellett wrote extensively about the women of the 18th century who fought to secure the Revolution’s high ideals for all Americans, “to which…we are not less indebted for national freedom, than to the swords of our patriots who poured out their blood.”

Learn more about the role of women in the American Revolution, like Abigail Adams, with our new classroom video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0TBVAWXZ_o&t=2s