National Medal of Honor Museum…On 22 March, the National Medal of Honor Museum opened to the public following a dedication ceremony that included thirty-two of sixty-one living Medal of Honor recipients and other dignitaries, including former President George W. Bush. Located in the entertainment district of Arlington, Texas, the $270 million, 100,000-square-foot National Medal of Honor Museum features 25,000 square feet of exhibit space that tells the story of America’s highest decoration for valor and those awarded the Medal. Among the artifacts on display are the first Medal of Honor presented, which was awarded to Army First Lieutenant Jacob Parrott during the Civil War, uniforms, battle flags, weapons, dog tags, family photographs, a UH-1H Huey helicopter, and other items. The museum also features several interactive exhibits and a theatre which employs AI technology that allows recipients to talk virtually with visitors. For more information on the National Medal of Honor Museum, visit https://mohmuseum.org.
Society of the Cincinnati…As part of its commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the opening of the Revolutionary War, the Society of the Cincinnati has opened a new exhibition that explores the first year of the conflict using artifacts and other materials. Revolutionary Beginnings: War and Remembrance in America’s Fight for Independence opened on 1 March and features more than forty objects from the Society’s American Revolution Institute and several other museums and private collections. Artifacts on display include contemporary maps and prints, paintings, weapons, and other items. Highlights include the sword of a minuteman who responded to the call to assemble at Lexington, Massachusetts, on 19 April 1775; a Royal Navy officer’s painting of the Battle of Sullivan Island, South Carolina; and the journal of an American soldier during the Quebec Campaign. Revolutionary Beginnings is on display at the Society of the Cincinnati’s headquarters at the Anderson House in Washington, DC, and runs through 4 January 2026. For more information, visit https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org.
French Students Visit National Museum of the United States Army…On 6 April, a group of French high school students from Amiens, led by their history teacher, Dr. Louis Teyssedou, paid a visit to the National Museum as part of their trip to Washington, DC. The students, who worked on a project on the Battle of Cantigny with artifacts related to the battle, were particularly interested in the Army Overseas Gallery that includes exhibits on World War I. According to Dr. Teyssedou, some of the students were “moved to tears” in the section of exhibits that includes a recreated trench and individual soldier stories. In addition to the Museum, the students visited Arlington National Cemetery, where they laid a wreath at the grave of General John J. Pershing and a white rose at the grave of Pierre Charles L’Enfant. They also visited the Smithsonian museums and the Anderson House, and presented their Cantigny project at the French High School in Washington, DC.
World War I Exhibit…Encounters, a new exhibit in the main gallery of the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, opened on 23 May as part of the museum’s final phase of a three-year construction project. Encounters uses cutting-edge visual storytelling to relate the personal narratives of sixteen participants crafted from diaries, letters, and photographs. The narratives featured include Allied and German soldiers describing the horrors of combat on the Western Front, women working in munition factories to support the war effort, and men who dissented against war and were arrested and tried for protesting. For more information on Encounters, visit https://www.theworldwar.org.
Revolutionary War Documentary…The American Revolution, the latest documentary film by acclaimed director Ken Burns, will premiere on 16 November 2025 on PBS. This new, six-part documentary series examines the eight-year struggle for independence and how the American Revolution turned the world upside down. The film, narrated by Peter Coyote, follows dozens of figures from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Patriot and British civilian and military leaders, rank-and-file Continental and British soldiers, enslaved people, Native Americans, women, and French and Spanish allies. Dozens of scholars and writers who appear in the film or advised the production include Rick Atkinson, Don N. Hagist, William Hogeland, Edward G. Lengel, William E. Leuchtenberg, Holly A. Mayer, Nathaniel Philbrick, Jeffrey Rosen, Barnet Schecter, Alan Taylor, Kevin J. Weddle, Gordon S. Wood, the late Bernard Bailyn, and dozens of others. For more information on The American Revolution, including dates and locations of advanced screenings, visit http://pbs.org/americanrevolution.
