Summer 2017

Summer 132 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Fig. 4: Robert Crosman (1707–1799), drum, Taunton, Ma., dated 1740. Painted wood, paper, hemp, iron. H. 14¾, W. 15 in. Museum of the American Revolution. Fig. 5 : Mug, Staffordshire, England, 1774-1776. Creamware, H. 6⅜, W. 4¾ in. Museum of the American Revolution. This mug evokes the early years of the Revolution. Made in England for the American market, it celebrates Boston as a guardian of Liberty. It may date from the period of the “Coercive Acts” of 1774, part of the crown’s punishment for the 1773 Boston Tea Party, which closed the port of Boston and suspended the Massachusetts governing charter. the New-York Historical Society. These institutions have helped bring together some of the most significant material culture from the era ever assembled for public view under one roof. Generous private collectors also provided rare items for exhibition, many for the first time. Using the museum’s collection and loaned pieces, the main exhibit addresses the symbolism of material culture. As their political ambitions changed from calls for the restoration of “British Liberties” to independence (Fig. 5), Revolutionary Americans replaced images of King George III with George Washington, and the royal coat of arms with the “Chain of States.” Many American soldiers used objects to help define themselves. They wore their politics on their sleeves. Virginia rifleman William Waller carried a powder horn engraved “Liberty or Death” to display his commitment to the fight for American liberty in 1776 (Fig. 6). Several of General Washington’s silver camp cups are on display (Fig. 7). Edmund Milne, a Philadelphia silversmith, made the set of twelve cups in 1777. Also on exhibit are the epaulettes worn by Sergeant James Davenport of the Continental Army (Fig. 8). Davenport served in General Lafayette’s Corps of Light Infantry at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown and lived to tell the tale. The epaulettes, which Lafayette himself may have given to Davenport, are two of the rarest surviving emblems of an American enlisted soldier from the Revolutionary War. They came into the collection in 2015 from a Davenport descendant. The nucleus of the museum’s growing collection originated at Valley Forge. Inspired by the 1777–1778 winter encampment of