Fraunces Tavern Museum

Preserving the Past is a digital lecture that takes a comprehensive look at the architecture, design, and history of 54 Pearl Street, one of the oldest buildings in New York City. Led by Museum historian Mary Tsaltas-Ottomanelli, the lecture explores three hundred years of the building’s history – from its early construction on some of the city’s oldest landfill, to the extensive restoration in th...

In March 1783, as negotiations to end the Revolution were well underway, an anonymous letter circulated through the Continental Army's camp near Newburgh, New York. It called for the officers to meet--outside the chain of command--and act boldly to strong arm Congress to deliver on their long overdue pay and desperately needed pensions. But was the letter the officers’ idea alone? Or were they put...

What do we lose when our bars are shuttered? These can seem like frivolous spaces, but they have played an important role in American history. In this lecture, recorded September 16, 2020, Christine Sismondo explores the role of bars across the country's history, including the colonial era, Prohibition, the 1960s, and today. This lecture was held as part of Fraunces Tavern Museum's first Tavern We...

In this lecture, recorded August 20, 2020, Phil Holland explores the many forms taken by the Black presence at this critical patriot victory, from the Black soldier who died in battle as a member of Col. Seth Warner's Continental regiment of Green Mountain Boys, to the sources of wealth that funded the New Hampshire troops at the battle.

Just six months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, George Washington and the new American Army sit on the verge of utter destruction by the banks of the Delaware River. Rather than submit to defeat, Washington and his small band of soldiers crossed the ice-choked Delaware River and attacked the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey on the day after Christmas. He followed up th...

In this lecture, recorded July 16, 2020, Jones examines how America's founding generation grappled with the problems posed by prisoners of war, and how this influenced the wider social and political legacies of the Revolution. As the British denied customary protections to their American captives, the revolutionary leadership wasted no time in capitalizing on the prisoners' ordeals for propagandis...

In this lecture, recorded June 30, 2020, Libby McNamee discusses her historical fiction book Susanna’s Midnight Ride: The Girl Who Won the Revolutionary War. McNamee discusses her research into Susanna Bolling, the 16-year-old girl who made a heroic midnight ride to save General Lafayette from capture, paving the way for the Battle of Yorktown.

In this lecture, recorded June 17, 2020, Mount Vernon Research Historian Mary Thompson offers a comprehensive account of those who served in bondage at Mount Vernon. Drawing on years of research in a wide range of sources, Thompson brings to life the lives of the enslaved while illuminating the radical change in Washington’s views on slavery and race wrought by the American Revolution, ending in h...

In this lecture, recorded May 21, 2020, Lindsay Chervinsky explores the creation of the first presidential cabinet. Washington modeled his new cabinet on the councils of war he had led as commander of the Continental Army, tinkering with its structure throughout his administration. As Washington faced an increasingly recalcitrant Congress, he came to treat the cabinet as a private advisory body to...

The Property of the Nation: George Washington's Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President Presented by Matthew Costello 2.20.2020

Presented by Barbara Chernow