Something 250 years in the making didn’t just start in one day.
As America officially celebrates its semiquincentennial birthday this weekend, an exhibition at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown opens Wednesday and recognizes the events and people who helped shape the birth of the nation.
“Give me Liberty: Virginia & the Forging of a Nation” was one of the significant commemorations of its kind for the 250th when it opened last year at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond.
It opened on the 250th anniversary of Patrick Henry delivering his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech at St. John's Church in Richmond.
The 5,000-square-foot exhibit will be on display in Yorktown through Jan. 31, 2027.
Virginia was the largest, oldest and wealthiest of the 13 Colonies. It played an "outsized" role in the American Revolution, and the exhibition shows that, said Jamie Bosket, president & CEO of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
“What makes this exhibition special is it brings together objects, really treasures, from a number of historical institutions into one place.”
Visitors can see Henry’s eyeglasses and the whalebone paper cutter he wielded as he delivered the speech to the Second Virginia Convention. The exhibit features an original copy of Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, which promised freedom to any enslaved person who joined Great Britain’s forces.
A handwritten letter from George Washington to his stepson is on view. Washington asked the stepson to care for his mother as Washington assumed command of the Continental Army. It’s on display along with one of the earliest printings of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
George Mason drafted the document asserting the rights to life, liberty and property and establishing the principle that government served the people, not the other way around. Thomas Jefferson later drew upon that document to draft the Declaration of Independence.
The exhibition highlights lesser-known Virginians, such as Clementina Rind, the first female newspaper printer and publisher. Rind published one of Jefferson’s tracts, which proclaimed that the Colonies had a right to self-governance under natural law.
Rind was the official printer for the House of Burgesses and the Virginia Gazette newspaper.
“She was a female owner of a business at a time when most women did not own businesses,” Bosket said. “She’s a fascinating figure.”
The museum designed the exhibit to be immersive, using modern technology to accentuate the artifacts and informational panels.
“There are a lot of ways to evoke emotion,” Bosket said. “One of our goals is to turn facts into feelings. We want people to connect with the past and relate it to their lives.”
One of the audiovisual programs peeks into the window of a 1774 Williamsburg tavern. Taverns were spaces where ideas were debated and shared among everyday Virginians, including African Americans, many of whom were conflicted about whether to support the Colonists or the British.
Henry’s speech is also recreated in a dramatic audiovisual program.
“Revolution is loud, " Bosket said, "and revolution is passionate.
A mobile exhibition version will travel across the commonwealth through 2027 and visit more than 50 museums, libraries and community centers.