When guests venture into the planned outdoor interpretive area at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, recruitment papers will be handed out, cementing them as members of the Continental Army in the final days of the war.
The new recruits will then be turned loose in a constellation of hands-on activities, from learning infantry tactics and participating in drills at a rebel bivouac to witnessing the potent cannons positioned to rain down withering blasts of fire on the British troops entrenched at Yorktown.
There will be demonstrative lessons in open-hearth cooking and the production of textile goods. Systems of espionage used to cull valuable military intelligence from the crumbling British forces will be on full display. The current museum’s 1780s farm — which simulates life on a rural farm after the war ended — will be gone, replaced by a wartime farmhouse commandeered by rebel forces during the siege.
But before construction on any of that can start, the new museum building must be completed. Peter Armstrong, the senior director of museum operations and education for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, told the foundation’s board of directors on Nov. 6 that work is slated to wrap up on the new building within 45 to 60 days.
Once that work is finished and a certificate of occupancy is issued, foundation staff members can begin the complicated task of moving from the current Yorktown Victory Center building to the new 80,507 square foot museum. That move, which is expected to be finished by April 2015, will clear the way for demolition of the current Yorktown Victory Center building, where part of the outdoor interpretive area will be built.
Work began last year on the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, which will triple the size of the outdoor interpretation of historical events in Yorktown and boost the size and technological offerings of the museum’s interior.
After purchasing tickets, the first step for guests is a movie theater near the lobby, where they will watch “Liberty Fever.” The film will depict a group of people gathered in the early 19th century to watch a moving panorama of pictures called a “cranky” and listen to a man recount the rise throughout the colonies of the desire for a quick and permanent divorce from British rule and the formation of an independent state.
“[The guests are] going to see the story of the American Revolution and the achievement of liberty unfold before their eyes on this huge scrolling painting,” said Heather Hower, the foundation’s assistant director of outreach education and special services.
At key points in the revolution’s story, the film will “dive in” to the cranky and replace the panorama of images with live action recreations.
“You’ll find a live action story that tells about someone’s experience during the American Revolution that carried forth the feeling of liberty fever,” Hower said. “One of the final scenes will focus on the victory at Yorktown. That will be a powerful moment in the film.”
Once “Liberty Fever” is over, the guests will move on to the museum’s gallery space, where they will find a buffet of exhibits ranging from traditional artifacts to highly interactive displays infused with technology.
There will be interactive maps with touchscreen technology so guests can track the movement of people and goods during the revolution and explore the significance and story behind each of the war’s major battles. Another display will allow guests to input their ages to find stories of similar-aged people who lived through the Revolution.
The gallery space will also include a 4-D theater, with moving seats and technology equipped to re-create smoke and scents depicted on the screen. The theater will show a live-action film about the siege at Yorktown. The gallery will also have a live-action film about the Battle of Saratoga, an important American victory earlier in the war in Upstate New York.
These amenities — and the complete outdoor area — will not be fully prepared for more than a year. Between the completion of the new building in 45 to 60 days and the grand opening in Fall 2016, much work remains to be done.
After the April 2015 move to the new building, some of the exhibits can be deployed immediately. Many of the more valuable artifacts will be placed in storage until the heating and ventilation system in the new building has demonstrated the ability to hold temperature and humidity levels stable for a year.
The live-action films to be shown in the movie theater and the gallery space will not be ready until 2016. In the interim, the current film shown at the victory center, “A Time of Revolution” and the film shown there between 1976 and the early 1990s, “The Road to Yorktown,” will be shown in the theater. Work is also underway to finish a third film for the interim theater called “Liberty’s Call.”
The staggered construction and moving plans allow the museum to remain open throughout the process without having to invest in temporary shelters.
