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About Us The American Revolution is a story much larger than the war by that name. It's a story of human experience that shattered the status quo--that launched a new chapter in the five-thousand-year recorded history of the species--and that changed the world forever. It's a story that unfolds over half a century, from 1750 to the dawn of the modern age. It's a story of tough times, and new ideas, and extraordinary leadership. And it's a story of ordinary people--some black, some white, some mixed, some that would be hard to classify--who would give up all they had for the right to be called citizen. Never before in human history had a nation been born out of nothing more than a set of ideas. When the greatest military force the world had ever known surrendered on a field in Virginia in 1781, the world had indeed been turned upside down. Other "revolutions" would follow. Some were bloody and filled with terror, within a decade in France, a century later in Russia. Some were more quiet, and evolved over centuries. But all of them would seek inspiration from that story of tough times, and new ideas, and extraordinary leadership, and ordinary people, and... the world turned upside down. This is a story that hasn't been adequately told from beginning to end. There are battlefield monuments, and heroes of moment, and preserved historic sites. But now it's time to tell the whole story... from the stew of social and economic pressures that started it--to the brutal confrontation that focused it--to the hallowed concepts that enshrine it. That is the purpose of the Swan Historical Foundation's NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. The Foundation is named for an early (1821-1831) Congressman, Dr. Samuel Swan of Somerville, New Jersey, who wrote the bill authorizing a pension for the widows and orphans of those first American soldiers. It's fitting that this museum is home to the stunning collection of his Great, Great Grandson, New Jersey historian H. Kels Swan, who is President and founder of the Foundation. For many years, H. Kels Swan presided personally over his collection here at Washington Crossing State Park in Titusville, New Jersey. It's here where General Washington and his ragtag band of heroes turned the tide of a mighty struggle and took the offensive against an awesome force. And it's here where the Swan Historical Foundation's NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION is building for the future. We are a not-for-profit organization. Help us build a strong and lasting center. And come visit... see what you are helping to build! Copyright © 2004-2007 National Museum of the American Revolution. All Rights Reserved. |