Only one month remains to see the Museum of the American Revolution’s current special exhibition, Banners of Liberty: An Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags in Philadelphia.
It brings together 17 total flags from the American Revolution and Revolutionary era – the largest gathering of such flags since the close of the eight-year conflict in 1783. Called “a Herculean feat” by Antiques and the Arts Weekly, the exhibition kicks off the Museum’s Semiquincentennial celebration plans by bringing together more than half of these banners of the Revolution known to still exist in one room. Banners of Liberty is on view exclusively at the Museum through Aug. 10, 2025,in the first-floor Patriots Gallery, and is included with regular Museum admission.
The assembled flags, carried by regiments of the Continental Army and American militiamen, once waved in the smoke on battlefields from South Carolina to New England. Though they are now faded and tattered, the distinctive colors, symbols, and mottos on each flag speak to the motivations and political ideals of the Revolutionary cause and the growth of an American national identity. They help to tell the story of the American Revolution by serving as iconic links to the Revolutionary generation. Under these flags, diverse people forged a new nation based on the ideals of liberty, equality, and self-government.
All but one of the flags in the exhibition are on loan from private individuals or peer institutions and have traveled to Philadelphia from across the region and as far away as New England and the Midwest. 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, include the pair of flags of the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, which are 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.