Yorktown Victory Center Galleries
Declaration of Independence broadside, 1776,
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Hundreds of objects in the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation’s diverse American Revolution collection – from a Declaration of Independence broadside printed in July 1776 to an embroidered silver epaulette star made for George Washington in 1799 – are exhibited at the Yorktown Victory Center.
The broadside, acquired in 2009 and exhibited in the museum’s Declaration of Independence Gallery, was produced in Boston before a handwritten copy was signed by members of Congress. Other recent acquisitions exhibited in the same gallery are a Brown Bess musket stamped with the date 1776, a circa 1784 oval portrait of King Louis XVI, the French monarch who played a pivotal role in the success of the American Revolution, and a 1777 terra cotta bas-relief medallion portrait of Benjamin Franklin, who had a key role in persuading France to support the American cause.
The Witnesses to Revolution Gallery exhibits military items, clothing, household goods and documents associated with 10 individuals who left accounts of their Revolutionary experiences in correspondence, pension applications, diaries and memoirs. “A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison,” published in 1824, is exhibited with the story of Jemison, who lived among the Seneca Indians during the Revolution. A pair of silver knee buckles that belonged to “witness” John Chilton, a captain in the 3rd Virginia Regiment, is another of the objects on exhibit. Documents accompanying the stories of two African-American slaves - Jehu Grant, who served as a teamster in the Continental Army, and Boston King, who escaped to the British side - reflect antislavery sentiment in the American colonies prior to the Revolution. The antislavery movement continued to gain momentum after America won its independence, and a 1795 antislavery medallion is exhibited in another part of the galleries.
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Portrait of Cornwallis
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An array of 18th-century military accouterments – uniform buttons, swords, guns, muskets and pistols – is exhibited in the museum’s Converging on Yorktown Gallery. A 1702 French work on the construction of fortifications and artillery batteries and a 1781 French map, “Plan of the Siege of York in Virginia,” illustrate the important role of the French in ensuring the momentous American victory on October 1781. An issue of Boston’s Continental Journal dated November 1, 1781, reports the British defeat at Yorktown. British commander Lord Cornwallis, is depicted in late-1700s portrait, and American commander George Washington is shown on the battlefield with the Marquis de Lafayette in a 19th-century painting.
Artifacts excavated from the Betsy, a British supply ship sunk in the York River in 1781, are exhibited in “Yorktown’s Sunken Fleet.” The objects, including regimental buttons that led to the identity of the ship, barrel parts, musket balls, furniture hardware and dining utensils, are on long-term loan from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
Embroidered epaulette star owned by
George Washington.
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George Washington is depicted in civilian clothing in a contemporary copy of Gilbert Stuart’s famous Lansdowne portrait, commissioned as a present to the British prime minister who helped negotiate peace with the United States at the end of the Revolution. The circa 1800 portrait is part of an exhibit about the development of a new national government after the military end of the Revolution, culminating with the ratification of the Constitution and election of Washington as the nation’s first president.
A brass surveyor’s compass made in Winchester, Virginia, about 1780 anchors “The Legacy of Yorktown: Virginia Beckons,” which examines how people from many different cultures contributed to the nation. The exhibit features several objects made and used in Virginia, including a circa 1773 cast iron stove plate inscribed in German and a mid-century yellow pine clothes press exemplifying a unique furniture-making industry that flourished on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in the 1700s.
An exhibit of objects emblematic of the new republic includes the epaulette star, which Washington likely wore on the Fourth of July in 1799, and a 1790s desk with an inlaid eagle design adapted from the Great Seal of the United States.
Artifacts are acquired for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation collection with gifts from private donors.
Terra cotta medallion depicting Benjamin
Franklin, Jean-Baptiste Nini, 1777. |
Meeting of Washington and Lafayette at Yorktown,
Georges-Jules-Auguste Cain, 18th century. |
Pine clothes press, 1750, Accomack County,
Virginia. |
Louis XVI, King of France, Count Joseph Boze, 18th century. |
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