The American Revolution Experience’s traveling exhibit will be at Garst Museum, 205 N. Broadway, Greenville, through May 29. There is still plenty of time for visitors to experience the American Revolution through the eyes of the common man and woman.
The exhibit is the inaugural event for the Darke County America 250! celebration that will continue through 2026. Garst Museum and the Fort GreeneVille Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) have teamed up to bring this event to Greenville.
While the American Revolution Experience exhibit sees the revolution through the eyes of Patriots who were military mapmakers, drummer boys, and other ordinary people, Garst Museum and DAR are pleased to host John and Karen Burkett on Saturday, May 11, at 2 p.m., as they portray the lives of one of America’s Founding Fathers, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail.
The Burketts will follow the lives of two of the most prominent figures from the mid to late-1700s. Through their letters to each other, visitors will learn how their relationship shaped not only their marriage but also a young country.
John Burkett said they will bring to light what happened in the early years of John and Abigail’s life together pre-Revolution. Both were prolific writers, as John was a diarist from an early age. According to Burkett, many of those letters were kept even though John requested some of the writings be burned or that Abigail be very discerning with whom she shared the information. John Adams, an attorney and politician from Braintree, Massachusetts. was part of the First and Second Continental Congress and, along with Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, helped draft the Declaration of Independence prior to becoming America’s first vice president and eventually the second president of the United States.
Burkett said both Adams and Abigail were very learned people, and through their letters, people can see how influential Abigail was in assisting her husband. The letters also show their love for each other. “They were true to each other,” John said, even though they spent a lot of time apart. Philadelphia was 300 miles from his home in Massachusetts and not an easy commute. There were numerous instances of letters being sent from Philadelphia to Braintree and vice versa. Adams also served as envoy to France. From their time apart, there were many letters between the two that allow readers to examine the lives of these two historicial figures and understand who they were.
John and Karen are historians and reenactors and have been part of many programs in and around Greenville, including other presentations for DAR, and portraying John James Audubon and his wife Lucy for schools, as well as representing pioneer life in the 1800s at the Gathering at Garst and events in the log cabin at Shawnee Prairie. They also travel to Virginia each September to participate in events at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
There is no charge for this program or to view the American Revolution Experience. However, regular admission will be charged for those wishing to tour the Garst Museum.
Garst Museum and Fort GreeneVille DAR invite all to come and see this free exhibit and hear this exciting lecture. Youth, grades K-12, are highly encouraged to attend and enter into a drawing to win great prizes.
The American Revolution Experience exhibit can be viewed during Garst Museum’s normal hours of operations, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Garst Museum