Revolutionary War will get a museum filled with artifacts from collection

(CBS News) PHILADELPHIA - There are museums dedicated to barbed wire and Spam, hobos and yo-yos -- even trash. Yet there is no major museum for the treasures of the American Revolution. But there are plans to right that wrong -- with a museum to be built with public and private funds in the city where America was born.

In a secret location in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Scott Stephenson has been cataloging artifacts form the Revolutionary War.

He shows us a musket used in the Battle of Lexington and Concord -- the first action in the war of independence. He also has a soldier's canteen -- one only three known to have survived:

It says "U. States."

"If you think about it at this point the United States is still just an idea," Stephenson said.

A musket used in the Battle of Lexington and Concord is one of 3,000 Revolutionary War artifacts being donated to a new museum in Philadelphia documenting the Revolution.

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For years the 3,000 items in his collection have been looking for a permanent home. By 2015, they'll finally have one, when the Museum of the American Revolution opens in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall. Amazingly, it will be the first national museum to tell the entire story of the American Revolution.

"It's been a long time coming but I'm glad it's here," said Brown University professor Gordon Wood, a scholar of the revolution.

"There have been museums for almost every conceivable event in American history or person in American history. But not for the American Revolution," Wood said, "which is extraordinary when you think of the revolution as the most important event in our history."

The museum's collection will include a letter, written in Washington's own hand, celebrating the French joining the cause. It was donated just this month.

Another item: An enlistment form for recruits to an uprising.

"This is the original," Stephenson says. "Printed in the spring of 1775." It represents the beginning of the army.

The carvings on a soldier's powder horn show the stakes were high: "Kill or be killed," it reads. "Liberty or death."

A soldier's powder horn is one of more than 3,000 Revolutionary War artifacts that will be shown in the new Museum of the American Revolution set to open in Philadelphia.

/ CBS

But the prize of the collection is a 20-foot piece of canvas -- a tent that served as General Washington's home during the war.

"This is it. This is the roof under which he spent at least half of the American Revolution," Stephenson said. "Personally, I think it's chilling to think about the emotions that were felt underneath this canvas."

Washington's victories led to the birth of a nation. "To be an American is not to be something, but to believe in something," Wood said. "And the things that we believe in came out of that revolution."

The story is written in this collection -- artifacts from an act of defiance that would literally change the world.

[TinaTheodor]

For more information on Yorktown Victory Center and construction of the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, visit historyisfun.org.

[DebbyPadgett]

The Yorktown Victory Center in Yorktown, Virginia, has operated as a museum of the American Revolution for the past two decades, chronicling the Revolution from colonial unrest to the early national period, and currently is undergoing a transformation to become the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Among artifacts in the museum's collection of more than 1,000 objects are a rare July 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence, an epaulette star that belonged to George Washington, and a life-size portrait of King George III.

[Marty720]

note my old love Franklin,crossing to coax France to aidcolonies'battles at CA 80 and surelya naughty boy by today's standards. Sad old teacher re current public school teaching

[ZeeAnnMason]

Wonderful to see the great piece on the collection and read these comments. To learn more, please visit www.AmericanRevolutionCenter.org.

[MojitoMamma]

I love American history, and the Revolution is my favorite era. It saddens me to know that a lot of people say that "history is boring." That's just not true - the story of America is the story of all of us, and that's why everybody should make an effort to learn about our country's beginnings. If you love your country, you should study its history, and then you will know WHY you love it, you'll know where your patriotism comes from.

[Grad1]

It will add another feather onto the tricornered hat of what I feel is the finest city for history (both American and Colonial) in the US. Of all the historical tours I've taken in the East (Boston, New York, Williamsburg, etc), Philly topped them all! And what I particularly appreciate about Philly is its lack of pretentiousness and it's down to earth attitude.

[Grad1]

It will add another feather onto the tricornered hat of what I feel is the finest city for history (both American and Colonial) in the US. Of all the historical tours I've taken in the East (Boston, New York, Williamsburg, etc), Philly topped them all! And what I particularly appreciate about Philly is its lack of pretentiousness and it's down to earth attitude.

[nolapearl]

Awesome!!

[pokey5735]

Oh, to have the same Patriotic spirit today!

[1stlttightwad]

It will be great to see the collection in a proper setting with annotations and annecdotes to explain their significance so that all may enjoy..Too bad todays kids don't even know there was a Revolutionary War..History books today only go back to the 1930's. LIke the libs say, anything older than that is inconsequential and has no merit in todays society...What's the old saying..Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it...