Get a glimpse inside the first tank a visitor experiences at the American Heritage Museum - the M1917 from World War I. The American M1917 was the U.S. licensed copy of the French Renault FT, a compact World War I tank that pioneered the classic turreted layout still used today. Small, light, and mechanically straightforward, it represented America’s earliest steps into armored warfare.![]()
![]()
This tour takes you around the outside, touching on its surprisingly complex running gear, and the many differences from its French ancestor. We then go inside its tight crew compartment, showcasing the driver’s station, and the turret’s interesting weapon setup.![]()
youtu.be
The American M1917 was the U.S. licensed copy of the French Renault FT, a compact World War I tank that pioneered the classic turreted layout still used toda...
- 2025 Photo Recap -![]()
![]()
Here are a few of our favorite photos from the last year! Thank you so much to everyone who visited in 2025!![]()
![]()
From all of us here at the American Heritage Museum, we wish you a very happy and safe new year! See you in 2026! 🥳 🎉![]()
![]()
Photo credit to Matthew Ford, Keith Reid (@madbadger_aviationlens )
Learn about all the great stories of the past year and get a glimpse into our exciting future plans... read the 2025 American Heritage Museum and Collings Foundation Annual Magazine at the link below!
2025 American Heritage Museum / Collings Foundation Annual Magazine
issuu.com
Welcome to Issuu’s blog: home to product news, tips, resources, interviews (and more) related to content marketing and publishing.
Eighty years ago, veterans of World War II were starting to come home, able to spend the holidays with their families again in peacetime. As we reflect on the happiness they experienced, let us all find peace, joy, and comfort with our loved ones as we share this precious time of year. From all of us at the American Heritage Museum, Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings to you, wherever you are, and our best wishes for a happy and healthy 2026! ![]()
(Artwork by @djangostudios for the American Heritage Museum)
- This event has passed.
Speaker Series: A Perfect Frenzy by Author Andrew Lawler
April 12, 2025 @ 1:00 pm, ending 2:30 pm
Free with standard museum admission
Join us on Saturday, April 12th for a talk by nationally best selling author Andrew Lawler about his book A Perfect Frenzy – A story that will forever change our understanding about the American Revolution.
As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded in Virginia that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill in uniting the colonies against Britain. Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, and most populous province in British North America, was led by Lord Dunmore, who counted George Washington as his close friend. But the Scottish earl lacked troops, so when patriots imperiled the capital of Williamsburg, he threatened to free and arm enslaved Africans—two of every five Virginians—to fight for the Crown.
Virginia’s tobacco elite was reluctant to go to war with Britain but outraged at this threat to their human property. Dunmore fled the capital to build a stronghold in the colony’s largest city, the port of Norfolk. As enslaved people flocked to his camp, skirmishes broke out. “Lord Dunmore has commenced hostilities in Virginia,” wrote Thomas Jefferson. “It has raised our countrymen into a perfect frenzy.” With a patriot army marching on Norfolk, the royal governor freed those enslaved and sent them into battle against their former owners. In retribution, and with Jefferson’s encouragement, furious rebels burned Norfolk to the ground on January 1, 1776, blaming the crime on Dunmore.
The port’s destruction and Dunmore’s emancipation prompted Virginia’s patriot leaders to urge the Continental Congress to split from Britain, breaking the deadlock among the colonies and leading to adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Days later, Dunmore and his Black allies withdrew from Virginia, but the legacy of their fight would lead, ultimately, to Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.
Chronicling these stunning and widely overlooked events in full for the first time, A Perfect Frenzy offers a striking new perspective on the American Revolution that reorients our understanding of its causes, highlights the radically different motivations between patriots in the North and South, and reveals the seeds of the nation’s racial divide.
