Museum of the American Revolution

The Museum of the American Revolution opened in April 2017 on the edge of Old City Philadelphia, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Its founding premise was that no museum in the country comprehensively told the story of the Revolution from all perspectives — not just the political leaders and military commanders, but the enslaved people who sought freedom on both sides, the Native nations whose lands were contested, the Loyalists who remained committed to the Crown, and the ordinary soldiers and civilians who lived through the war.

The museum’s permanent collection of more than 3,000 objects includes muskets, swords, drums, uniforms, documents, and personal effects spanning the colonial era through the early republic. The exhibition design uses period rooms, film projections, and immersive set pieces to place artifacts in their historical context.

The centerpiece experience is a dedicated theater built around George Washington’s field marquee — the large command tent he used as his mobile headquarters throughout the war from 1776 to 1783. The tent, made of linen and measuring roughly 20 by 20 feet when assembled, survived in the Washington family’s possession for nearly two centuries before coming to the museum’s collection. The theater experience opens with theatrical lighting and narration to reveal the tent at the dramatic conclusion, placing visitors in the physical presence of one of the most significant surviving objects of the Revolutionary War.