Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board Recommends Four Add-on Sites for Those Interested in the Revolutionary War
Contact:
Dan Weckerly
Communications Manager
Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board
610. 834.7990 (office); 610.574.1605 (cell)
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA – Now that ticket sales have begun for Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, the Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board (VFTCB) has a message for eager history buffs: As you await the April 19 opening date, come to Montgomery County, 18 miles west of the museum, and experience the actual locations for yourself.
“We are the site of Valley Forge National Historical Park and other sites significant to the story of our quest for liberty,” says Mike Bowman, VFTCB President & CEO. “The Museum of the American Revolution is stunning and has already established a good relationship with us. Its mission to engagingly and vibrantly encapsulate the war years of 1775–1783 align seamlessly with our organization and its promotion of historically significant locations throughout the county,” he says. “Before and after the official ribbon cutting of the Museum of the American Revolution, fans should definitely plan a day or two here.”
The VFTCB highlights four locations of particular interest to visitors of the Museum of the American Revolution:
- Valley Forge National Historical Park, site of the 1777-1778 winter encampment of the Continental Army
- Peter Wentz Farmstead, one of Washington’s headquarters; its grounds housed 12,000 men in October 1777
- Pennypacker Mills, another Washington HQ that served as a strategic field hospital after the Battle of Germantown
- Pottsgrove Manor, home of the Potts family whose ironworks were the original “the forge in the valley” that gave Valley Forge its name.
These sites are detailed in the VFTCB's Patriot Trails itineraries, a series of online, customizable tours throughout Montgomery County.
The field tent of General Washington was displayed at Valley Forge for decades.
Dona McDermott, archivist and historian at Valley Forge National Historical Park, knows this canvas dwelling well. For more than 20 years, when it was displayed in the park’s Visitor Center, she shouldered the awesome responsibility of caring for it.
“Conserving historical artifacts like the sleeping marquee is a matter of making choices,” she says. “Different conservators handle things differently, and techniques change over time. But everything a conservator does has an effect.”
McDermott describes the second conservation of the tent as “…correcting and improving on some of what had been done in the past.”
Although she hasn’t seen tent’s new display space at the Museum of the Revolution for herself, she’s seen the renderings of how it will be presented to the public.
“It looks really great,” she offers. “I never quite liked the armature we had it on while it was at Valley Forge. The Museum of the American Revolution has spent an inordinate effort to get the tent on an armature that is going to not only display it but protect it.
“And it deserves that,” she concludes.
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The Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board (VFTCB) is a nonprofit, membership-based sales and marketing organization that actively promotes Valley Forge and Montgomery County, Pa., as a convention site and leisure visitor destination by encouraging patronage of its 400-plus member hotels, restaurants, attractions and services. The Board’s award-winning website, valleyforge.org, serves visitors, meeting planners, tour operators and residents, as well as hosts The Pursuit, a nationally recognized blog. The VFTCB oversees a portfolio of brands that include Valley Forge Sports, Montco 360, Destination Montco Weddings, Patriot Trails and Destination Montco Golf. It is also the publisher of the new dining magazine Crave, issued twice yearly.
