The War for Independence Begins

Celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Revolution with Washington-area exhibits

(“Battle on Lexington Green” (1910), by William Barnes Wollen. Image from National Army Museum (UK).)

Saturday, April 19, marks the 250th anniversary of the start of the War for Independence. Up in Lexington and Concord, in Massachusetts, re-enactments of Paul Revere’s ride start tonight, Friday, in Boston, while early on Saturday, at the exact times, Minutemen will once again face off against redcoats at dawn on Lexington Green and later in the morning at the North Bridge. These were the events that began the birth of America, as immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his 1837 poem, “Concord Hymn”:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world.

("Concord Bridge, The Nineteenth of April, 1775,” by Don Troiani. Image from American Battlefield Trust.)

Those in the Boston area will have the privilege of dominating the early months of the commemorations, but exhibits and events related to the Revolution will be taking place all around country over the next eight years, until the anniversary of the Treaty of Paris, which signed in 1783.

The National Capital will be a center for multiple celebrations, culminating of course next July on Independence Day. For now, Washingtonians can take advantage of some outstanding opportunities to learn about the war. At the Library of Congress, a new exhibit entitled “The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution” focuses on perhaps the two great actors of this era, George Washington and King George III. The exhibit runs through March 21, 2026, giving you enough time to read Andrew Roberts’s recent The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III and any one of the biographies of Washington, whether Joseph Ellis or Ron Chernow, though not to be forgotten are the one-volume abridgements of James Thomas Flexner and Douglas Southall Freeman’s classic biographies.

The Society of the Cincinnatti, located in Anderson House, just north of Dupont Circle, is kicking off an eight-year slate of programming by the Society’s American Revolution Institute. Their first exhibit, “Revolutionary Beginnings,” is now open, while on April 29, they will host a panel discussion on the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In the meantime, the Institute’s first video (there will be one for each year of the war), aimed at school-age children, is also available, something parents can show at home. The Institute also has a fascinating page on contemporary artistic imaginings of Lexington Green, the earliest from 1775. All events and exhibits at Anderson House, like at the Smithsonian, are free.

(“Battle of Lexington Green,” engraving by Amos Doolittle after a print by Ralph Earl, December 1775. Image from History Net.)

The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon has a schedule of different talks, some free, some not. On April 29, Rick Atkinson will present on the soon-to-be-released second volume of his Revolution trilogy. For those interested in following the first years of the war, Atkinson’s first volume, The British Are Coming, is a comprehensive look at the period 1775-1777.

The Trust for the National Mall will be hosting the first event in their series of “On the Road to America’s 250th on the National Nall” Monumental Conversations in 2025 on May 19, also with Rick Atkinson.

Those willing to do a day trip to Philadelphia should stop by the Museum of the American Revolution, whose new exhibit “Banners of Liberty: An Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags” opens this weekend.

Unfortunately, it does not look like the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has scheduled any special events or exhibits to commemorate the outbreak of the Revolution. Hopefully, this will be rectified soon.

However one decides to commemorate the beginning of the War for Independence, there are a host of ways to do so in Washington, let alone Philadelphia and Boston, over the next few years. I wonder what might be going on in London?

Happy 250th!