The next stop during our Philly road trip, was the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The museum is located in the old town section of the city, a few blocks from independence square and other revolutionary war historical sites.
We got to the museum at ten in the morning. It took us about two and a half hours to go through all the displays and films (plus do a little shopping). The museum has two stories of walking area. The lower area includes a theater for viewing a film about the conflict and other messaging. There is also a traveling display area (during our visit, this covered the Black Founders). There is also a gift shop and some nice dioramas and vignettes.
The upstairs area is the main museum. It starts from 1775 and flows through the entire war. The displays cover various military and civilian happenings during the conflict. On a side note, the quality of the mannequins is amazing, they look totally lifelike). Here you get plenty of artifacts, nice life sized vignettes and plenty of narrative displays. There are also a few more films focusing on different aspects of the conflict.
One of the things that they take great pride in is that they have General Washington’s traveling command tent that he used throughout the war. There is a short film about the tent and its history, then you can see the tent from behind glass.
A very nice museum and worth the visit to anyone interested in the American War of Independence or just history in general.
- Manteuffel.