Imagine seeing George Washington’s war tent, where he commanded Continental soldiers in the fight for the freedom we still enjoy today. Now imagine that tent carefully curated with an original stool, his camp bed, camp equipment, and eating and drinking utensils all reunited for the first time in more than two centuries, reconstructing the scene where this country fought for its very existence. It’ll give you goosebumps.
Step back in time and experience it for yourself at the special exhibition, Witness to Revolution: The Unlikely Travels of Washington’s Tent, at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. The exhibit begins February 17 and runs through January 5, 2025.
“Some of these items that we will have on display in the exhibit are being reunited for the first time since 1802,” says curator Matthew Skic. When Martha Washington died, “the majority of the items at Mount Vernon were auctioned off. And most of those materials, including George Washington’s tents, were bought by family members … that means that in 1802, the items, many of the items that were once together under one roof or at Mount Vernon, were dispersed.”
The exhibition tells the story of Gen. Washington’s tent, his decision to leave the field and return to Mount Vernon in 1783, how the tent became a family heirloom, and how it ended up in Philadelphia. More than 100 historic artifacts, many from Northern Virginia, are included in the exhibition that expands on the museum’s popular “Washington’s War Tent” theater presentation.
Using “objects, documents, works of art, touchscreen interactives, audio and video elements, and more,” it highlights the personal stories of figures connected to the tent, from famous names like Alexander Hamilton to lesser-known individuals like Selina Gray, who was enslaved at Arlington House and who rescued the tent during the Civil War.
Among the key artifacts is a letter from Gray to Robert E. Lee’s wife Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee in 1872 that details the occupation of Arlington House; that rare manuscript is on loan from the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. A stereograph of Gray with two of her daughters also will be on display.
The lesser-told stories of figures like Gray and Washington’s enslaved valet, William Lee, “paint a fuller picture of the history of Washington’s tent, how the tent has survived from the Revolutionary War to the present day,” Skic says.
NoVA lenders include Mount Vernon, the Alexandria Washington Lodge, the Masonic Lodge in Alexandria, and Arlington House. Notably on loan from Mount Vernon is George Washington’s original camp bed from the Revolutionary War that he slept on inside the tent, and one of Martha Washington’s travel trunks.
Museum guests have been known to cry when confronted with the tent. “What makes them so emotional is that this tent is such a symbol of Washington’s leadership and a symbol of the larger idea of the American Revolution, the idea that this is a country founded upon the principles of liberty, equality, and self-government,” Skic says.
“The principles that form the foundation of this country still survive just like this tent survives. The tent is fragile. The American experiment and liberty and equality and self-government is fragile. It’s a bit of a metaphor for the survival of the nation.”
Feature image courtesy Museum of the American Revolution
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