Yorktown Victory Center
On October 19, 1781, the decisive military campaign of the American Revolution culminated with the British surrender to combined American and French forces under the command of George Washington. The Siege of Yorktown effectively ended the six-year struggle of the Revolutionary War and set the stage for a new government and nation.
Today the Yorktown Victory Center, a museum of the American Revolution, chronicles America’s evolution from colonial status to nationhood through a unique blend of timeline, film, thematic exhibits and outdoor living history.
An open-air exhibit walkway details events that led to American colonies to declare independence from Britain.
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A rare broadside printing of the Declaration
of Independence is on display at the Yorktown
Victory Center. The historical document was
co-published in Boston on or about July 18,
1776, by John Gill and Edward E. Powars
and Nathaniel Willis.
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation collection
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Indoor exhibition galleries portray the Declaration of Independence as a revolutionary document that attracted international attention, recount the war’s impact on 10 ordinary men and women who left a record of their experiences, highlight the roles of different nationalities at the Siege of Yorktown, and explore the story of the Betsy and other British ships lost in the York River during the siege. Exhibits also describe how people from many different cultures shaped a new society and the development of a new government with the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Outdoors, visitors can explore a re-created Continental Army encampment, where historical interpreters describe and depict daily life of American soldiers at the end of the war. A re-created 1780s farm, complete with a house, kitchen, tobacco barn, crop fields, and herb and vegetable garden, shows how many Americans lived during the Revolutionary era.
Learn more about how the allied victory at Yorktown helped to secure American independence and the role of the militia during the Revolutionary War.
The Yorktown Victory Center is located near Yorktown Battlefield and Visitor Center, administered by the National Park Service.
Follow these signs to the Yorktown Victory Center.
