see inside the tent to see what it looks like and get a glimpse of an inner chamber,” adds Skic. Adding to the intrigue is the tent’s history. Ownership passed down from Washington eventually to the family of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee when George and Martha Washington’s great granddaughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Lee in 1831—a bit of irony perhaps considering Washington fought to establish a new nation while the Confederacy’s aim was to split it apart. The museum’s very life-like dioramas include a fully uniformed Gen. Washington breaking up a street brawl in Harvard Yard, figurines of Oneida Nation Native Americans debating whether to side with the Americans or British, and colonial protestors—fired up by a first reading of the Declaration of Independence—preparing to topple a replica statue of England’s King George III in New York City. “Most of the statue was melted down and turned into 42,000 musket balls to fire back at the British,” says Skic. “One newspaper account called it ‘melted majesty.’” It’s easy to trace the founding fathers’ footsteps in Old City Philadelphia, a compact neighborhood stretching from 6th and 7th street on the west side to the Delaware River on its east end. Often referred to as “America’s Most Historic Square Mile,” the district is an open-air museum of sorts with many of the actual buildings—or their reconstructions—in which our nation’s government and institutions were formed, all in walking distance of each other. Stepping out of the Museum of the American Revolution, I cross 3rd Street and walk up the steps of the First Bank of the United States fronted by its massive Corinthian columns—the same steps once used by Alexander Hamilton,
Washington’s Tent with full light, courtesy Museum of the American Revolution.
the actual canvas battleground headquarters where Washington slept and commanded the Continental Army from 1778 up until the war- ending 1781 Battle of Yorktown. “The tent is like seeing a tangible connection to the past when Gen. Washington was sitting on his camp stool and writing correspondence— when writing in moments of triumph but also in some of the darkest moments when it looked like the American Revolution wasn’t going to succeed,” says Matthew Skic, the museum’s Curator of Exhibitions. “This tent was witness to that—an emotional thing when thinking about the decision-making that was going on in that tent.” Washington’s war tent, in fact, is the star of its own show with actual hourly theater presentations. Each begins with a 12-minute movie projected on a partially see-though screen in front of the tent, followed by dim lights revealing its outline until the lights are turned up full. That’s when visitors get a clear look at the off-white tent with its ascending roof that drops down to a decorative valance with edges of red worsted- wool binding. Keeping lights low for most of the show is to preserve the heavy-weight linen canvas, explains Skic. “It’s in quite good shape for being just about 250 years old and that’s why we feel comfortable displaying it the way we do.” At one point, a shadow is cast upon one side of the tent—a figure of a man inside walking against what appears to be flickering candlelight. Perhaps it’s how Washington’s image actually appeared when working inside, I wonder. The shadow effect is possible because that side of the tent’s walls didn’t survive and is thus a reproduction with thin fabric designed for such a light projection. “So, at one point you’re able to
Brawl at Harvard Yard with George Washington, a diorama in the Museum of the American Revolution.
PHILADELPHIA REVISITED
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 | 10
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