Browse Items (26 total)
- Collection: Revolution and the New Nation
Robert Dinwiddie Bookplate, circa 1750s
A bookplate is a small-sized, decorative label that is adhered to the inside front cover of a book. They are used to identify the owner of a book for personal use or for use in a library. Bookplates are designed to reflect a person’s interests or to…
Steering a Bateau, Watercolor, 1798
Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764–1820) was born in England, where he worked for an engineer and an architect before immigrating to the United States. He became one of the young nation's most significant architects and designed the U.S. Capitol. While…
Terms of Capitulation of Fort Necessity, 1754
In January 1754, Virginia's lieutenant governor (acting in place of the absent royal governor), Robert Dinwiddie, sent a small force of Virginia soldiers to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio River, where present-day Pittsburgh now stands. In…
The Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, December 15, 1791
The struggle for the ratification of the United States Constitution convinced some political leaders that amendments were needed to protect individual liberties from the strengthened national government created by the Constitution. During the First…
The Virginia Declaration of Rights (George Mason's Draft)
Virginia's Fifth Revolutionary Convention met at the Capitol in Williamsburg from May 6 to July 5, 1776, and declared independence from Great Britain. The delegates also voted to prepare a constitution for Virginia as well as a statement of rights.…
Yorktown Tea Party, November 7, 1774
In May 1773 the British Parliament passed the Tea Act granting the British East India Company a monopoly on importing tea. Intended in part to discourage colonists from buying smuggled tea on which they paid no taxes, the act implicitly acknowledged…