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American Revolution

John Adams's official presidential portrait, painted circa 1792 by John Turnbull.

John Adams Was the United States’ First Ambassador as Well as Its Second President

Adams’s house in the Hague was the first-ever U.S. Embassy

Paul Revere gets all the credit, but he had a little help from his friends.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and Some Other Guys

The midnight ride wasn’t so much a solo operation as it was a relay

British sailors board a Man of War to recapture the British Hermione in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, two years after the crew had mutinied. Painting by John Augustus Atkinson; Fry & Sutherland; Edward Orme.

How the Bloodiest Mutiny in British Naval History Helped Create American Political Asylum

Outrage over the revolt spurred the U.S. to deliver on a promise of the Revolution

A quarter of the U.S. population (including a girl in Moline, Illinois) turned out for the Liberty Bell.

World War I: 100 Years Later

How the Liberty Bell Won the Great War

As it entered World War I, the United States was politically torn and financially challenged. An American icon came to the rescue

The 4D theater tells the story of the Battle of Yorktown.

Telling the Forgotten Stories of the Everyday Americans of the Revolutionary War

Near where the Battle of Yorktown was waged, a new museum fuses innovative technology with storytelling techniques to connect with visitors

These reproduction huts in Jockey Hollow are similar to what Washington's army would have used during the brutal winter of 1779-1780.

Washington’s Army Celebrated St. Patrick’s Day to Cure Winter Blues

Washington declared the day a holiday in an attempt to raise morale and acknowledge the army’s many soldiers of Irish descent

Prison Ship Martyrs Monument

The Grisly History of Brooklyn’s Revolutionary War Martyrs

The Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, a crypt in Fort Greene Park, may become part of the national park system

Thaddeus Kosciuszko

The Polish Patriot Who Helped Americans Beat the British

Thaddeus Kosciuszko engineered the colonial defenses in some of the Revolution’s most critical battles

New England Patriots mascot Pat Patriot high-fives a minuteman after an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Oct. 16, 2014.

Super Bowl

Ten Fun Facts About the Original Patriots

The football team has only been around since 1960, but its mascot’s history stretches back to the country’s foundation

Bernardo de Galvez Statue, Central Business District, New Orleans, Louisiana

The Little-Remembered Ally Who Helped America Win the Revolution

Bernardo de Galvez’s involvement may not have been altruistic, but his contributions made a difference nonetheless

The Tocsin of liberty: rung by the state house bell, (Independence Hall;) Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776

After Nearly 500 Years in Business, the Company that Cast the Liberty Bell Is Ceasing All Operations

London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry will fall silent soon, but will forever be tied to an icon of American history

Now more of the Princeton Battlefield, where Washington and his troops scored a pivotal victory, will be preserved.

Trending Today

Preservationists Score Victory at Revolutionary War Battlefield

Most of the Princeton battlefield where Washington’s troops fought will be saved from development

Capture and Burning of Washington by the British, in 1814, wood engraving, 1876

The Sole American Killed in the 1814 Burning of D.C. Was Related to George Washington

John Lewis was the grandnephew of the first President of the United States

"I am well acquainted with Gen.l W. who is a man of very few words but when he speaks it is on purpose [and] what I have often admired in him is he [has] always avoided saying anything of the actions in which he has engaged in the last war. [H]e is uncommonly modest, very industrious - prudent." Charles Willson Peale to Edmond Jennings, August 1775

The Strange Case of George Washington’s Disappearing Sash

How an early (and controversial) symbol of the American republic was lost to the annals of history

"America is lost!" wrote George III.

Now We’ll Finally Get to See the American Revolution Through the Eyes of King George

A treasure trove of nearly 350,000 documents, about to be released to the public, reveals new insights about how George III lost the colonies

Ask Smithsonian

When Was the First Map Produced and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

The Boston Light still shines brightly at night in Boston Harbor.

Cool Finds

The Oldest Lighthouse in the United States Just Celebrated 300 Years of Service

The Boston Light still welcomes sailors to Boston Harbor

Who will be the next Hamilton?

Which Great American Should Be Immortalized With the Next Big Broadway Musical?

Hamilton has caught the nation’s attention. A panel of Smithsonian writers and curators suggest who’s next.

Tankard made in Westerwald, German , found along with lots of tanning debris in a privy associated with a small house on an alley that probably be longed to tanner.

Cool Finds

Tens of Thousands of Artifacts Have Been Found in Colonial Philadelphia Toilets

Archaeologists excavating the site of the Museum of the American Revolution found a dozen privy pits full of pottery, printing supplies and animal bones

Likely made from a cow’s horn, this Revolutionary War era gunpowder holder belonged to patriot fighter Prince Simbo.

Breaking Ground

The Revolutionary War Patriot Who Carried This Gunpowder Horn Was Fighting for Freedom—Just Not His Own

Simbo, an African-American patriot, fought for his country’s liberty and freedom even as a large population remained enslaved

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