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New Yorktown art exhibit explores lives of Revolutionary veterans who built America

Virginian-Pilot - 8/15/2017

Aug. 15--The battle is over, so soldiers pack up their gear, cover their wounds, head back home and wonder: What's next?

It's an age-old question. The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown examines postwar life in the extensive exhibition "AfterWARd: The Revolutionary Veterans Who Built America."

The exhibit follows several men who fought during the Colonists' victory at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 and how they built their lives once they returned home. It shows that some were more successful than others.

"AfterWARd" includes short films, interactive displays, illustrations and rare artifacts such as the lap writing desk of Alexander Hamilton, who earned a name at Yorktown and later became the country's first secretary of the treasury and the founder of the Coast Guard. The exhibition also features lesser-known stories, such as that of James Lafayette, a slave from New Kent County who worked as a spy for Colonial troops. He left the battlefield and returned to his master's fields but didn't stop fighting. He spent years lobbying for his freedom, a veterans' benefit promised to the enslaved who worked for the cause in place of their masters.

Curator Kate Gruber said the exhibition shows how the battles change but the debate around veterans and benefits remains, and has particular meaning to this region's military population. The Revolutionary War was not an ending but a beginning, Gruber said.

"As soon as we came to be, we became a nation of veterans," Gruber said. "We knew this was a subject area that people could relate to."

In addition to the exhibition, the museum has programs planned for the next few months, including a veterans' benefits clinic by the American Legion and a panel discussion on the evolution of veterans' benefits on Thursday. "AfterWARd" closes on Nov. 27.

The museum had a long list of veterans' stories to pick from, but focused on key figures and partnered with museums from around the globe to illustrate them. Although Hamilton is now the subject of a blockbuster Broadway musical and Hamilton artifacts are in high demand, Yorktown was able to get the desk from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.

The Marquis de Lafayette, a veteran and friend of Hamilton's, reached rock star status in this country after the Frenchman helped the Americans defeat the British. Lafayette returned to America in 1824 as a "Guest of the Nation," and spent 13 months touring the States, including an extended stay in Tidewater .

A number of places in Norfolk , including a park, a street and a river, are named after him.

Former and future presidents feted Lafayette with parades and balls, and merchants pumped out merchandise with his name and image, including dress sashes, baby shoes and drums, items that are on display in Yorktown. The restored carriage Lafayette traveled in is on loan from the Studebaker National Museum of South Bend, Ind.

Before returning to the States in 1824, Lafayette had maintained communications with fellow veterans.

For example, the slave James Lafayette did not initially qualify for veterans' benefits because he was deemed not to have "fought" for the Colonials; his work as a spy was not enough under the law, Gruber said.

But he had worked with the Frenchman at Yorktown, and the marquis wrote a letter to support the enslaved man. James Lafayette was granted his freedom in January 1787 and assumed Lafayette's name in honor of his friend.

During Lafayette's Virginia tour in 1824, the marquis saw James in a crowd during a parade, stopped the procession and jumped out to embrace his friend.

While the exhibition includes personal historical stories, Gruber said one of the most meaningful elements is an interactive feature in which visitors can type messages on a screen to honor veterans in their lives. The message is then electronically displayed temporarily among the photos of veterans from all eras and areas of service, including famed cook Julia Child, who worked as an intelligence officer during WWII.

"It's my favorite part of the exhibit," Gruber said. "It drives home the idea that no matter when you served or how you served, you're still a part of the same narrative."

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