Yorktown Victory Center continues its Revolutionary War lecture series with events focused on an American spy and archaeology.
The annual series, which has run since the beginning of September, previews upcoming events and galleries to be included in the museum as it transitions to the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, according to Debby Padgett, museum spokeswoman.
The life of James Lafayette, an enslaved patriot spy, will be explored at the James Lafayette: Invisible Spy lecture on Sept. 20. Curator Kate Gruber will share new research about Lafayette and provide an overview of the man’s life, which included infiltrating British camps to gather information and spread disinformation in support of the struggle for American independence, Padgett said.
“He was one of the very diverse people caught up in the American Revolution,” Padgett said of the spy that participated in the Siege of Yorktown.
Lafayette will be featured among 20 people as part of a June exhibition that focuses on the lives of the siege’s veterans, Padgett said. Lafayette won his freedom after the war and took his last name in honor of the French general he served, Marquis de Lafayette. The exhibition, titled AfterWARd, will be the museum’s first special exhibition, Padgett said.
On Sept. 27, digging Yorktown’s Past: An Archaeological View of 18th Century Yorktown provides an overview of key excavations made at Yorktown in the 1970s.
Ed Ayres will lead the lecture which includes images, maps and drawings of the work done at the battlefield’s 1781 Grand French battery site. Ayres is a Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation historian.
The poor potter ceramic manufacturing operation, which was the largest pottery factory in Colonial America and skirted British economic law to operate, will also be included in the lecture.
Jacobs can be reached by phone at 757-298-6007.
Want to go?
When: James Lafayette: Invisible Spy, Sept. 20. Digging Yorktown’s Past: An Archaeological View of 18th Century Yorktown, Sept. 27. Both lectures begin at 7 p.m.
Where: 200 Water St., Yorktown. Yorktown Victory Center theater.
Admission: Free. Advance reservation is recommended. To make a reservation, call 757-253-4572 or email rsvp@jyf.virginia.gov.
