| It is a new day as we awaken to see that black, chartered bus awaiting our boarding. This bus, after a full week at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, will connect us, finally, to the third vertex of Virginia's historic triangle. This is to be the day that we attend to the activities in Yorktown. It is to be one more highlight of our week. Instead of a guided tour, most of the participants would rather have had more time in the American Revolution Museum. The tour was a basic retelling of the events of the Revolution, and there was little to offer outside of the facts that most of us already knew. |
I was interested in the statue of Patrick Henry (above), which with the assistance of the right imagination appears to be changing a lightbulb. I was interested in the nearly-life-sized portrait of King George, with a period-adorned interpreter to inform me about it. I wanted to see the portraits of Phillis Wheatley and Ayuba Suleiman Diallo.
Thankfully, I was able to edge my way to the outskirts of the tour, where I could take a few pictures of items that caught my eye. Still, without the time to stop and read, many artifacts and displays eluded my attention. I was honored to see the silver I Love Liberty spoons, the DW-etched wooden canteen, the medicine chest, and the dispatch book clearly marked with letters about the repealed Stamp Act. I enjoyed the romanticism of the Liberty Tree, with its orange and yellow glowing lanterns displaying phrases and thoughts from the Revolution. I admired the modern museum representations of a history long past, projected images of national coats of arms lighting the floor. | |
One area focused on Thomas Jefferson, this being one more brush with the Declaration-writer and third president that I've had short of visiting his house at nearby Monticello. Here is a broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence said to be older than the one on display in the District of Columbia.