The Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia PA will kick off its celebration of America’s Semiquincentennial with a special exhibition, Banners of Liberty: An Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags. The exhibit will bring together 16 original flags from the Revolutionary era – the largest gathering of such flags since the close of the eight-year conflict in 1783.
Opening on the 250th anniversary of the “shot heard round the world” at the Battles of Lexington and Concord which ignited the Revolutionary War, Banners of Liberty will be on view exclusively at the Museum from April 19 through Aug. 10, 2025 in the first-floor Patriots Gallery, and will be included with regular Museum admission.
Of the hundreds of flags made and carried in the Revolutionary War by soldiers fighting for the American cause, only about 30 are known to survive today. Working with institutional and private lenders, the Museum assembled nearly half of these original flags present at military campaigns stretching from northern New England to South Carolina. These artistically embellished flags employed colors and designs to represent political ideals and a growing national identity, as well as to instill “esprit de corps” within military units. For America’s Revolutionary generation, the flags that flew over their regiments and ships or were carried through their towns to battle were perhaps the first visual expressions of liberty and independence that they saw.
Flags on loan to the exhibition have traveled to Philadelphia from across the tri-state region and as far away as New England and the Midwest for the exhibition. Several of these flags were made in Philadelphia – the capital of the American Revolution – and this exhibition marks their first return to the city since the war. As part of its commitment to preserve these rare and fragile artifacts, the Museum has contributed to the conservation and new framing of six of the displayed flags with the help of generous donors. These preservation efforts, led by textile conservator Virginia Whelan, are set to include the pair of flags of the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, which will be on loan from the New Hampshire Historical Society, and the flag of Pulaski’s Legion, on loan from the Maryland Center for History and Culture.