Made by Philadelphia: Supplying the Revolution

Made by Philadelphia: Supplying the Revolution opens at the Museum of the American Revolution on April 10, 2027, and runs through September 6. It's a look at how the Philadelphia region actually kept the fight for independence going—not through the big battles, but through the trades, crafts, and industry that supplied the war. The exhibition shows how the Revolutionary War was sustained by the labor of gunsmiths, tailors, shoemakers, farmers, and surgeons, as well as the work of printers and flagmakers.

There's a live element to it, too. The museum is setting up a recreated workshop where costumed interpreters work in real time, and inside that workshop, they're building a full-scale recreation of General George Washington's headquarters tent. You can watch the process as it happens rather than just seeing the finished product.

On display are a few specific objects that bring the human side of the effort into focus: a newspaper advertisement for the flagmaker Rebecca Flower Young, a musket made by the gunsmith Thomas Palmer, and a cookie board that belonged to Christopher Ludwick, who served as the Superintendent of Bakers in the Continental Army. Each one points to a different kind of labor—sewing, smithing, baking—that went into keeping an army fed and equipped.

The exhibition marks two anniversaries at once: the Museum of the American Revolution's 10th year and the ongoing 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War. You can find it at the museum, 101 South Third Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, from April 10 to September 6, 2027.