Does downtown Philadelphia really need another museum?
No — this isn’t about the Barnes Foundation. I’m talking about the American Revolution Center, which had the almost opposite experience. It wanted to build on the outskirts of Philadelphia, in Valley Forge, but couldn’t reach an agreement with the National Park Service — sadly. Last summer, it reluctantly decided instead to take a spot on Third and Chesnut Streets near Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell offered by the NPS/Interior Department. Details here.
Much work remains to be done, like getting a completely new design. But ARC is busy proving that it’s needed: last Friday, it released the results of a survey of adult Americans, which had asked 27 multiple choice questions about the revolutionary period. We flunked, posting an average score of 44%.
The details, though, are far more interesting. Results were broken down by age, gender, political party, geographic region, age, education and income level.
Guess whether Republicans, Democrats or Independents were better at naming the first Treasury Secretary? Who knew best which kind of government the Constitution established? Who said “oligarchy” most frequently? The answers are in a short piece I wrote for Forbes.com. And you can read the entire 40-page survey/results here.
ARC already has a rich collection of art, objects, manuscripts and books, including George Washington’s sleeping tent, flags from the period, and paintings like The March to Valley Forge by William B. T. Trego, The Battle of Germantown by Xavier della Gatta, and The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis (above).
The survey, as intended, indicated that we do need ARC — or something to teach us history.
Photo: Courtesy American Revolution Center