October 9, 2012 at 8pmA document from the NHS collections was featured on the popular PBS television show History Detectives .
“A Revolutionary War-era document was discovered in the NHS collections when our Buchanan/Burnham interns examined the papers of John Austen Stevens, a New York businessman and history buff who founded the Sons of the Revolution in 1876,” explains NHS Executive Director Ruth Taylor. “It was found folded with other routine papers, but was clearly on much older paper. When it was unfolded, the document appeared to be an 18th century plan of the Continental troops at Valley Forge. Additional study indicated that it offered details not available on any of the known maps of the encampment. Clearly, this document needed further study and authenticating.”
History Detectives, which explores the complexities of historical events that shaped America, contacted NHS to propose investigating the origins of the fascinating but mysterious Revolutionary War-era plan. NHS staff worked closely with the program’s team during pre-production and the episode was filmed in early summer and was aired Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 8pm on WGBH Boston PBS.
View the video on the History Detectives website here: http://video.pbs.org/video/2285042567.
“It has almost become routine that we find fascinating and deeply significant artifacts and documents in the NHS collections,” Taylor says. “Because the Historical Society was established long before modern cataloging techniques were instituted, we have been working to bring the Society’s collections up to modern standards. Who knows what else we will discover in the coming years.”
The Valley Forge Map, which is the focus of the forthcoming episode of PBS’s History Detectives from the Newport Historical Society’s collections.