Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. 250 years ago this April, the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in Lexington and Concord. The war soon shifted to New York City. One building played a significant role in the city's revolutionary history: the Fraunces Tavern. The Fraunces Tavern is still standing, and it's a great spot for dinner and a drink, but did you know the building was once a meeting spot for the Sons of Liberty? It was the host to two important banquets for George Washington, and even suffered some damage in the war. The Fraunces Tavern Museum has a new special exhibit to commemorate New York's role in the American Revolution. It is titled Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation.

Joining me now to discuss the exhibit and some of the building's revolutionary history is Scott Dwyer. He is the executive director of the Fraunces Tavern Museum. Nice to meet you, Scott.

Scott Dwyer: Thank you so much.

Alison Stewart: And Lisa Goulet, who is the museum's collections manager. Hi, Lisa.

Lisa Goulet: Hi.

Alison Stewart: Lisa. Let's talk about Samuel Fraunces. What do we know about Samuel, the owner and operator of the tavern?

Lisa Goulet: We know quite a bit about Samuel Fraunces' life once he gets to New York. However, his origins are somewhat mysterious still. He arrives in New York from the West Indies in about 1755. This is the first documented evidence we have of him being here. He's about 30 at the time. He gets married shortly after to Elizabeth Dalley in 1757, who was part of a large tavern-keeping family.

For pretty much the rest of his life, he is a pretty prominent tavern keeper and entrepreneur. He operates, ultimately, at least eight taverns and other establishments during his life and career. Post-war, he serves as George Washington's presidential household steward, first at his Cherry Street residence in New York City, and then later, after the Washingtons relocate to Philadelphia, he then serves out the rest of Washington's two terms.

Alison Stewart: Scott, what would draw patrons to Fraunces Tavern?

Scott Dwyer: Well, Samuel Fraunces was a better cook than normally people would expect to receive at a tavern in New York City. He prided himself on his ability to provide delicious food and drink at all hours of the day and night, which was unlike taverns, which provided meals to live, not food to enjoy at one hour, and if you make that, you're kind of out of luck. Also, he was an entertainer. He had wax figures at his tavern at times, which were a source of entertainment for patrons. It was the chance to enjoy the food and drink, but also enjoy the company. He knew everybody in the city because they were coming to his tavern. You could definitely meet somebody or see somebody you knew and talk about your grievances that you had with the king, which were many in the 1760s and 1770s, up until New York fell to the British at the start of the revolution.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about how the Sons of Liberty met there, Scott. What do we know about who met there? Do we know it was discussed among the Sons of Liberty?

Scott Dwyer: Well, that's the challenge, because you couldn't just advertise that you were meeting to talk about--

Alison Stewart: "Hey, we're [unintelligible 00:03:27]. We're in here."

[laughter]

Scott Dwyer: We don't have a lot of documentation on what was discussed then and how it was discussed, but we knew the players. We knew that people were meeting at the tavern. We can make inferences based on Fraunces' relationships with the documentation of people who did come through at some point. It's some inferences, but just based on other accounts, we know that they were meeting there.

Alison Stewart: Lisa, what did Samuel think about having the Sons of Liberty at the tavern? Was he an active supporter of the revolution? Where did he stand?

Lisa Goulet: He was certainly a patriot. I think that Sons of Liberty do have a reputation for being a bit too rowdy. Their official headquarters are actually at another tavern that is notorious for getting raided, where they're kicked out of it prior to everything starting up in the revolution. However, there are also a lot of people who would end up being critical leaders in the revolutionary movement, like New Yorker Hercules Mulligan. This is really the clientele that Fraunces is catering to. I think that ultimately he supports them.

One of the instances where they are at the tavern is they are organizing the tearing down of the statue of King George III after the Stamp Act has come into effect.

Alison Stewart: My guests are Scott Dwyer, executive director of the Fraunces Tavern Museum, and Lisa Goulet, who is the museum's collection manager. We're discussing the new exhibit at the Fraunces Tavern Museum to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War. It's titled Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation. Scott, when the British started making gains in Manhattan, what happened to Fraunces Tavern?

Scott Dwyer: Well, the city fell very early in the Revolution in August of 1776, where Washington was forced to retreat to fight another day, so the tavern was left in the care of his son when Fraunces had to evacuate eventually. He was brought back as an indentured servant of the British and was forced to work in his own tavern as an indentured servant to serve the British while they were occupying the city. Fortunately, it survived when a lot of the city burned early in the war. It survived various onslaughts of physical destruction and people invading it, and was the site of great celebration finally at the end of the war.

Alison Stewart: Yes. Apparently, George Washington had a dinner there. Will you tell us more?

Lisa Goulet: Yes. At the close of the war, the British have evacuated at the end of November in 1783. This is cause for a huge celebration. When Washington returns to New York City, he holds a banquet for his officers at Fraunces Tavern on December 4th as his official goodbye. From there, he departs back home to Mount Vernon.

Alison Stewart: Scott, the exhibit kicks off the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War, but I'm told this programming is going to go on for several years.

Scott Dwyer: Yes.

Alison Stewart: How is the museum involved in this major anniversary, and what are you going to be doing several years forth?

Scott Dwyer: Well, it's twofold. The exhibition is where we'll be highlighting all the events of the revolution in an ongoing rotating basis. Right now, we have 1775 and 1776 on the walls. Then, as we go through the years of the revolution, we'll be taking down objects and replacing them, so you always see something fresh when you come in every few months-- or no. Lisa's giving me the look. I would say every year at least. Along with that, we'll also be doing programming to highlight various authors talking about the events, lectures, and books that they're coming out with. It'll be a really interesting focus on the events and individuals throughout the years.

Alison Stewart: Lisa, for this exhibit, you got to dig through the archives and look at the museum's collections. What was something that you discovered that you've been telling people about?

Lisa Goulet: One of my favorite pieces in the entire museum's collection has come out of us scouring through our storage for items that have never been on display before. That is a painting by John Mackie Falconer of Independence House, where he thinks that Thomas Jefferson has drafted the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was one of five people who were tasked with drafting, but he did the lion's share of the work, holed up in a little apartment in the center of Philadelphia at the time. What Falconer is actually representing in the painting, this is this mid-19th century street scene of a very dilapidated 18th century home with a giant sign plastered on it that says Independence House, it's actually one of up to five sites that at the time, following the war and when, ahead of the centennial, we were looking back to commemorating the first 50 or 100 years post war, and celebrating that, people were taking advantage of that and claiming that these historical events happen at these sites. This is one of the five sites.

It's ultimately two blocks away from the actual site. I think that it's a really interesting piece in that it's someone who was early on interested in historic preservation. He did a whole series of paintings of historic structures and the like, and so he felt it was-- You know. To me, it's interesting to consider how, for him, in the 1850s, this was true. This was the site of where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. I think it's a really interesting snapshot of the memory of this building at the time.

Alison Stewart: Scott, the exhibit, obviously, it starts in Lexington and Concord, but it moves to New York. The Revolutionary War, it moves through New York. Why did the city become so important?

Scott Dwyer: Well, it was the major city of the time, as it is today. The Declaration was read here shortly after it was published. Washington ordered it. He was here at the time. It was really the site of so much just people voicing their displeasure with how they were being governed against the quite oppressive laws that were coming against them in a city that was very commerce-appropriate, commerce-oriented. Taxing without representation was a blight on everybody's well-being. Everything was happening here in the city. When revolution breaks out, this is where people are coming to express their displeasure.

Alison Stewart: Lisa, how do you want to use this exhibit as a chance to highlight New York's role in the revolution?

Lisa Goulet: This is really a great chance, I think. We wanted to focus on the main events. A lot of these are familiar to most people coming in if they're into history. We wanted to do it through the lens of what happened in New York, specifically, not just in the city, but across the state, and so I'm looking into things that are outside of the purview of that main narrative in terms of geography.

Then, secondarily, we want to highlight the contributions of New Yorkers or people who were fighting in these New York battles. That's another part where I've been digging through our collections and finding pieces that have been rarely used or never used before. We have some extant objects, like Joshua Webster's pistol, who was the ancestor of the donor, but had really minimal documentation with it. This was a good chance to then, I'm doing biographical research on some of these figures that aren't part of the central group of, let's say, founding fathers or major officers. This is an excellent thing that I want to try and accomplish is expanding the biographical research on a lot of these people who have more of the commonplace artifacts because they represent a lot more of the everyday soldier.

Alison Stewart: My guests are Scott Dwyer, executive director of the Fraunces Tavern Museum, and Lisa Goulet, who is the museum's collection manager. We're discussing the new exhibit at the Fraunces Tavern Museum to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War. It's titled Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation. There are cannonballs, Scott, that were excavated near Fraunces Tavern, but they damaged Fraunces Tavern somehow. Could you explain?

Scott Dwyer: Yes. Around the Battle of Long Island, which was August of 1776, the HMS Asia is stationed just outside New York harbor and shoots a cannonball into the city, and it lands through the roof of Fraunces Tavern. This is a significant event in the tavern's history, just because suddenly the revolution is not just in the city, it's on the doorstep, it's through the roof. We are going to be talking about that event later this year when we have our anniversary commemoration of that. Look for cannonball cocktails, history. Combining a little bit of flair, a little bit of fun, a little bit of history. This is really New York City getting the brunt of artillery fire during that period of the war.

Alison Stewart: You also have in the exhibit, Lisa, Nathan Hales.

Lisa Goulet: Yes.

Alison Stewart: You have a letter from him. I believe he was hanged in New York. Is that right?

Lisa Goulet: He was hanged.

Alison Stewart: I remember. I remember when he hanged. What does this letter say?

Lisa Goulet: This is, as far as we know, the last known letter of Nathan Hale.

Alison Stewart: Oh, wow.

Lisa Goulet: It's written about a week, week and a half before the Battle of Long Island. It's a letter to his brother Enoch back in Connecticut. He's recounting in it all of this fervor of activity that is happening in preparation for something. Over the summer of 1776, the British and American forces both recognize that New York, as a major port, is really critical to whatever side's success. Nathan is there before the battle starts, helping to fortify the city. He's part of an intelligence unit that is scanning the city and waterways. He also details an event, an engagement where Americans tried to set fire to a British warship in it. Then he, I think, concludes on a bit of an optimistic note, he's saying he's incredibly busy, but he thinks that we're going to prevail.

However, unfortunately, immediately after the Battle of Long Island, Nathan Hale volunteers to remain behind after the British have taken it and act as a spy. He's, unfortunately, discovered a few weeks later and then hanged in late September. He becomes a martyr figure for the movement. That's how he's now remembered and rose to prominence that way.

Alison Stewart: Another interesting artifact in the exhibit is a piece of fence from Bowling Green. Tell us why this piece of wood is so significant, Scott.

Scott Dwyer: Well, there's two artifacts, a piece of wood and the piece of the fence. The piece of the fence is a round Bowling Green. It's the fence that surrounds the statue of King George, which is toppled after the Declaration is read in the city. It's the site of where people are coming together to declare independence and declare their grievances, and that the king's reign is no more here in the city. That piece comes from the original fence. I believe the fence was torn down and then reconfigured to what we have today, that you can still see. That piece comes from the original fence as it was being torn down to start a revolution.

Alison Stewart: Lisa, as you mentioned, there's art in this as well. There's a piece of work which is kind of interesting because it's the depiction of the Battle of Brooklyn, but it was made in Europe. What does this work of art tell us about the preconceived notions that Europeans had about the colonies?

Lisa Goulet: We have this really interesting print showing the British disembarkation onto Manhattan Island by a German printer originally. It's a perspective view, which was a type of fairly cheap entertainment intended for mass distribution. They're really quickly sketched together and then colored in with a watercolor wash that's pretty splotchy and bright. People would have parties in their homes, or traveling presenters would show these shows. It was almost a way to keep up with current events, because a lot of the time it depicted somewhat current events.

This scene in particular, I love because the printer, he's someone who's never been to America. He's getting all of his information about the disembarkation from, I'm sure, correspondence and newspaper accounts on the continent. It is wholly imagined. What it looks like is this orderly descent of the troops off of a ship at a very well manicured dock, showing a European urban center which looked nothing like-

Alison Stewart: What it was like.

Lisa Goulet: -Kips Bay at the time, which was really a rough riverbed. What actually happened was that the British stationed three massive warships and they were bombarding the side of the river while smaller boats of troops stormed the shore, taking a lot of the military by surprise who were hanging out in redoubts in a ditch, these temporary fortifications. It's a really, really interesting fantastical scene.

Alison Stewart: I'm having a Hamilton moment [crosstalk],-

Lisa Goulet: Yes.

Alison Stewart: -right? Let's talk about some of the other things you're going to be having at the museum. What can visitors expect?

Scott Dwyer: Well, if you're coming for this special exhibition, you'll see all of our permanent galleries and all of our other exhibitions. We are famous for our Long Room, Washington's farewell site on the second floor. More recently, we've opened two other permanent galleries. One is Governing the Nation, which talks about the tavern's time as the first executive Federal Government office building where the Departments of War, Foreign Affairs, and the Board of Treasury were all stationed, while New York City was the capital between 1785 and 1788.

Then, most recently, we reopened our Birch Trials at Fraunces Tavern, which talks about the site of the tavern being where a group of British and American soldiers formed a commission to evaluate whether Black Loyalists could evacuate with the rest of the British army based on the claims of freedom that they had been given during the war, but came into conflict at the end of the war when the Treaty of Paris had language that was preventing them from leaving in a lot of cases. We're talking about that in our permanent gallery.

Then the rest are our flag gallery, which talks about regimental war flags from across regiments in the US. Then, of course, our George Washington Portrait Gallery, which has various images of Washington throughout his career in various different themes.

Alison Stewart: The name of the big exhibition is Path to Liberty: The Emergence of a Nation on the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War. Scott Dwyer and Lisa Goulet have been my guests. Thank you for being with us.

Scott Dwyer: Thank you.

Lisa Goulet: Thank you so much for having us.