The Unfinished Revolution: Maryland in the Wars for Independence
The Unfinished Revolution explores the turmoil of the United States’ emergence on the world stage between 1775 and 1815. The exhibition highlights two points that became certain—the country’s revolution remained unfinished, and Marylanders of many races and creeds were at the forefront of each conflict.
More About the Exhibition
The American Revolutionary War was just the beginning. While sometimes called the American War of Independence, the effort to become a free and independent nation could not be so tidily confined. Emerging from seven years of warfare, the infant nation soon found itself trudging back into conflict. Over the next three decades, the new American ideals of free trade and republicanism had to be defended before they could take shape.
The Unfinished Revolution ties together the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, the Quasi-War, and the War of 1812 as one connected narrative, exploring the effects these conflicts had on Maryland, and the political and economic growth of the state and the nation thereafter.
Throughout the exhibition, the concept of independence is continually dissected. What did independence mean with each passing conflict, each treaty, and to whom did it apply? Alongside the stories of the war heroes, immortalized in portraiture, are those of everyday men turned into soldiers, Black and white, free and enslaved, who may only be represented in extant archival material. The Unfinished Revolution also includes how the conflicts affected those who didn’t fight, of enslaved women who fled with the British Army to a new life in Canada, and of women known as “camp followers” who followed their husbands to war because they had no provisions or support at their homes.
The Unfinished Revolution opens in the museum gallery that previously featured In Full Glory Reflected: Maryland in the War of 1812, a popular and award-winning exhibition that was installed in 2012 for the nation’s bicentennial anniversary. Now, The Unfinished Revolution opens as the United States looks ahead to its 250th anniversary in 2026.
