American Revolution Experience Exhibit Ready to Visit YOUR Community

Mary Koik, American Battlefield Trust Director of Communications

November 15, 2023

The American Battlefield Trust has been honored to collaborate with the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution to create the American Revolution Experience, an outstanding exhibition that captures the spirit of both our organizations by showcasing lasting connections to the people and places indelibly linked to our war for independence. Coupling DAR’s incredible archive of documents and artifacts with the Trust’s industry-leading digital content, we created an award-winning interactive online exhibit that shares the experiences of ordinary people who witnessed the dawn of a new nation.

But we knew this powerful content had even greater potential to bring the past alive and began exploring opportunities to create a physical traveling exhibit.

Now, thanks to federal matching funds from the inaugural cohort of awards by the American Battlefield Protection Program Interpretation Grants and an incredibly generous $200,000 gift from NSDAR’s America 250! Program, the American Revolution Experience is ready to hit the road! The physical exhibit was erected for the first time at DAR Headquarters on October 6, 2023, as part of Sparkle in Service Week. Although that copy will largely remain in Washington, D.C., for visitors to the DAR Museum and Library to enjoy, three additional copies will begin touring the nation in 2024. DAR-affiliated events and venues have the opportunity to host a copy free of charge and with priority scheduling. This first phase of the traveling exhibition will visit some 45 sites through late spring 2025.

The exhibit consists of 12 panels, designed to be arranged in pairs that cover thematic topics raised by the individuals featured in the exhibition. Examples include “Choosing Sides,” “On the Front Lines” and “Freedom or Slavery.” Three touchscreen displays augment the panels – one focused on the featured individuals, one highlighting places connected to those stories that can still be visited and one that includes Trust-produced animated maps that offer deeper context by showing the course of the full Revolutionary War, as battles unfolded across the continent.

DAR chapters, state societies and entities working with them, may now request specific booking windows for the exhibit to travel to them in 2024. To begin the process, visit www.battlefields.org/ontour to complete a short form. Trust program staff will then soon be in contact with further specifics and to solidify your schedule. Because of NSDAR’s generosity in matching the entirety of the federal grant, there is no fee for chapters, state societies or their affiliated events to host the exhibit!

We appreciate that some venues will have exact date needs, while others can be more flexible. And while short runs for DAR events, such as state conferences, are absolutely welcome, we also encourage chapters to work with community venues, including libraries, schools or museums, that may also be able to take advantage of the exhibit’s presence. We are happy to report that within the first month of booking, there are 18 completed reservations from DAR affiliates for runs of the exhibition.

The exhibit was designed with DAR chapters in mind, ensuring that all-volunteer groups of women can successfully stage the installation without specialized skills. A “Host’s Guide” with photos and video shows how to erect and retract the durable 7’H x 3’W panels, with their accompanying supplemental lighting. Handouts providing Spanish language translation of the panel text will help make the exhibit accessible to the greatest number of viewers.

All hosts will also be provided with a marketing kit that includes resources like draft press releases, sample social media posts and templates for flyers and newspaper advertisements, all items designed to help share the word of the exhibit’s time in your community. For example, schools may be able to take field trips to experience something like this locally, even if travel to a museum farther away has been cost prohibitive.

I urge DAR chapters across the nation to consider whether their community has a venue that could host the American Revolution Experience. The more people encounter the remarkable stories of the Revolutionary Generation, the greater the public awareness of how profoundly their personal conviction and valor shaped this nation from its very foundation.

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