Before the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, exhibitions and events in many states offer a variety of voices and views.
What’s all that yelling?
It’s hard to make out the words, but at the entrance to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s new “Give Me Liberty” exhibition, a man’s voice was registering anger — loudly enough that it threatened to drown out the director of curatorial affairs, Andy Talkov, who was giving a tour.
Just four days before the exhibition’s opening last month, Talkov was explaining the significance of one of the objects viewers will see when they enter the first of two second-floor galleries holding the exhibit. It is a Charles Willson Peale portrait of George Washington. But this one is different from the other six Peale portraits of the first president. Painted in 1772, it shows a younger man, dressed in the blue and red uniform of a provincial officer — which he had been, loyally serving the king of England, during the French and Indian War.
Like many others, Washington’s views would, of course, change over the next few years — as the exhibition shows.
But wait: That angry voice seems to grow louder, if still unintelligible — and is now joined by the murmuring of others. A meeting gone wrong? Someone on the museum staff having a bad day?
“Oh,” Talkov said matter-of-factly when the din threatening to drown him out momentarily subsided. “That’s Patrick Henry.”
Indeed it is — or at least an impression of the fiery 18th-century Virginia legislator, performed by the history re-enactor John Tucker, and shown on a six-minute, 30-second video loop as part of the exhibit. Standing in 18th-century finery, and with his glasses shoved up to his forehead (as was Henry’s habit), Tucker was videotaped standing in the very spot Henry did — the nearby St. John’s Church in Richmond, four miles east — 250 years ago. On March 23, 1775, he delivered the impassioned address that would provide a rallying cry of the Revolution — and the inspiration for this exhibit, illuminated by a collection of rare objects that include a pair of spectacles that Henry actually wore.
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is not the only institution that has plans to recognize the semiquincentennial — the 250th anniversary — of the Revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Often working with state commissions that have been created to help support educational initiatives for the anniversary, history museums around the country are developing programming and exhibitions that tell the rousing story of how the country achieved independence, while also including the voices and experiences of women, enslaved and free African Americans, and Indigenous people.
“The flag waving and the bell ringing and references to inspiring patriotic comments, that all needs to be there,” said John R. Dichtl, president and chief executive of the American Association for State and Local History. “But it also needs to be a more inclusive, fully rounded history.”
And perhaps a unifying one, as well. “For me, telling these stories can be bridge-building,” said R. Scott Stephenson, president and chief executive of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, whose own 250th-anniversary exhibitions kicked off this month with “Banners of Liberty,” a collection of rare battle flags. “We can see what we have in common, through the Revolution,” Stephenson said.
Jamie Bosket, the Virginia museum’s president and chief executive, believes that the exhibition can tell Virginia’s part of this history in a balanced way. “We’re going to be respectful, thoughtful, reflective, comprehensive and celebratory,” he said.
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Image: An installation view of “Give Me Liberty: Virginia & The Forging of a Nation” at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond. Artwork credit, at rear: Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741−1827), “George Washington as Colonel in the Virginia Regiment,” 1772. Oil on canvas, 50.5″ x 41.5”. Courtesy of the Museums at Washington & Lee University. Courtesy of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture
