The recast American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, even incomplete, is an immersive experience for the senses, and for the masses.
Visitors won’t focus just on Yorktown’s role in the Revolutionary War. Staff members with the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, which operates the museum, say visitors will get as lifelike a feel for the broader Revolutionary War as possible, considering they are separated by more than 240 years from it.
“Every kind of trick in the book that we could use to get across the message and ultimately reinforce that message, because people learn by repeating those messages,” said Peter Armstrong, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation’s senior director of museum operations.
Go through the museum, whether guided by a soon-to-debut app, or by curiosity, and find interactive and touchscreen exhibits, silhouettes, imposing statues of Patrick Henry and George Washington as well as hologram-like figures depicting real Revolutionary War soldiers.
But it’s outside that the American Revolution at Yorktown, rebranded and renewed following a $50 million facelift of the Yorktown Victory Center, will be distinct, with its Continental Army encampment and Revolution-era farm.
It will be an encampment of two full companies of Continental Army soldiers, but not of any particular Virginia regiments, according to Homer Lanier, the foundation’s interpretive program manager. Many of the Virginia regiments had been forced to surrender in Charleston, S.C. when it fell to the British in May 1780.
“You’re going to feel like you’ve walked into a Revolutionary War encampment,” Lanier said. “Like when the war came to Yorktown and they set up in your side field, at your farm, you’re going to feel like, ‘Wow, the Continental Army just plopped down right here.'”
Visitors will walk among the rows of tents, officers and equipment that moves with the army.
“On any given day, you’ll be able to learn just about anything that tickles your fancy about the American Revolution, at any time — whether it’s medicine, feeding ’em, housing ’em, drill, artillery, weapons — there’s something there for everybody, and it can be personalized,” Lanier said.
In a sampling of what visitors can expect in the encampment, Sally Stook, a supervisor in the recreated Continental Army encampment at the museum, showed visitors last Saturday what it would be like to enlist in the Continental Army, down to providing incentives to get men— ages 16 to 60 — to enlist.
In the scenario, the Revolutionary War has been going on for two years. Initially, she asks the group whether they would like to sign up for three years, or for the duration of the war. No one raises a hand.
“We need to get you guys enticed to join,” Stook said. “If you join the army for three years, you will get a bounty of $20. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s three months of pay in the 18th century. Just keep that in mind. If you stay and fight for the entire war, we’ll add on 100 acres of land.” She notes the importance of the land offer, as the main profession at the time was farming.
When she asked the group again, a few hands went up, most to serve for the war’s duration.
It’s that kind of hands-on learning, Lanier says, that can be adapted for different groups to focus on different aspects of the Revolutionary War period.
“We have a number of years of history to cover when we’re in our Continental Army encampment,” Lanier said. “And our historical interpreters, who are going to be out there in 18th-century military uniforms, they’re going to be able to talk about the entire war. The museum talks about the entire war.
“Don’t get me wrong. We’ll focus a lot on Yorktown and on the Siege of Yorktown, and … we want our guests, when they’re finished here with us at our museum, or maybe before they come to us, we want to make sure that they visit Yorktown National Battlefield, which surrounds us here.”
He wants them to walk in the footsteps of those who served in the Revolutionary War, from the privates to the generals.
“If we can bring more folks to Yorktown and they visit both our museum and visit Yorktown Battlefield, then we’ve done something right,” Lanier said.
Finishing touches
The encampment and the Revolution-era living farm adjacent to it which is based on the 18th-century Edward Moss family farm in York County, are not quite finished, but they are scheduled to be complete by the grand opening celebrations of the rebranding and remaking of the museum, which begin March 23.
Other parts of the museum also await finishing touches, such as the Liberty Tree. It is a 17-foot sculpture which resembles an elm tree. It is rooted next to a mini-theater focused on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
In what would be the Liberty Tree’s bark, symbols of liberty or freedom can be seen on it. Kiosks at the museum will allow visitors to submit messages, which will follow a lighting effect to go up the tree, with the message appearing in one of the 20 lanterns hanging from it. The lantern where the message goes will glow with each visitor’s message. Visitors to the museum’s website will also have the opportunity to submit messages.
A special exhibition, AfterWARd, will debut June 10 and will tell the stories of what happened to soldiers after the Revolutionary War, and the museum app is soon to come.
“We’ve built a wonderful museum, with wonderful state-of-the-art exhibits,” Lanier said. “There’s something for everybody, indoors and out, no matter how you learn.”
Rebranding, renaming the museum
The rebranding, a 10-year transformation from the Yorktown Victory Center to the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, comes just before the grand opening of a similar sounding and themed Museum of the American Revolution, a new 118,000-square-foot museum opening April 19 in Philadelphia. That museum is estimated to cost $150 million, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
“I’m not sure what story they’re going to tell,” Armstrong said about the new Philadelphia museum. “Clearly it’s going to be the same. The bones of the story are really the same. The differences are things like, we have living history areas.”
Armstrong said the museum put a lot of effort to ensure it is relevant to today, using up-to-date technology. But what separates the museum from the one in Philadelphia — or any other — is Yorktown itself.
“The big difference, I think, is that we are here in Yorktown, on the battlefield site,” Armstrong said. “The best thing about the battlefield, I think there’s a sense of being able to go up to the museum and then go on the battlefield and really sense the field you’re on.”
Grand opening
From March 23-April 4, The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown will present 13 days of festivities showcasing the rebranded and remodeled American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, featuring a number of activities, reenactors, historians, entertainers, artillery salutes, flag-raising ceremonies and more.
The museum is calling it a “renewed national perspective on the meaning and impact of the Revolution.” The 13 days highlight the first 13 states of the United States of America, taking place in the order in which the states ratified the Constitution. The museum will be formally dedicated April 1 — Dedication Day.
The grand opening will highlight the museum’s 10-year transformation from the Yorktown Victory Center. Daily programs will recognize each date beginning midday with ceremonial welcoming remarks and presentation of the state flag, followed by an Honor Guard procession along the grand corridor to the outdoor recreated Continental Army encampment’s artillery amphitheater for a flag-raising ceremony and artillery salute.
Various educational programs, new exhibition galleries and interpretive programs in the encampment and Revolution-era farm areas will take place. There will also be children’s games and family-friendly activities.
For more details
Daily festivities
Visit: historyisfun.org.
March 23 — Delaware
March 24 — Pennsylvania
March 25 — New Jersey
March 26 — Georgia
March 27 — Connecticut
March 28 — Massachusetts
March 29 — Maryland
March 30 — South Carolina
March 31 — New Hampshire
April 1 — Virginia
April 2 — New York
April 3 — North Carolina
April 4 — Rhode Island
2017 Admission to the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is located at 200 Water St. and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The museum stays open until 6 p.m. from June 15 through August 15. It is closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
*$12 for adults
*$7 ages 6-12
*Value-priced combination ticket with Jamestown Settlement: $23 for adults, $12 ages 6-12. Parking is free.
