As part of the 2018 River to River Festival,  Night at the Museums gives locals and tourists the opportunity to visit Lower Manhattan’s diverse and culturally significant institutions—all for FREE. Visitors of all ages can spend a summer evening exploring New York City’s history and heritages. All museums and historical sites are within walking distance from one another in one of the most diverse and concentrated groups of museums in the world.

Schedule of Events

Night at the Museum programming at Fraunces Tavern Museum will include live 18th-century music and colonial dance lessons provided by the Tricorne Dance Ensemble throughout the evening accompanied by Ridley and Anne Enslow on genuine colonial instruments. Participants can also snap a souvenir photo in the Colonial Costume Photo Booth and take a free guided tour of the museum.
 

Colonial Dancing with The Tricorne Dance Ensemble 

The Tricorne Dance Ensemble is an 18th century dance group that performs and teaches the social dances that were performed during the colonial period. The group; which is under the direction of Denise Piccino, came into being 12 years ago in response to requests from the Bergen County Historical Society for demonstrations of period entertainment.  Members of the group include actors, dancers, singers, musicians, and artists. The group has performed at various historical sites in New York City and Williamsburg, VA. They have also performed at the Old ’76 House in Old Tappan, NJ, and at various school programs in northern New Jersey. The group can be currently seen performing throughout the year at various events held at the Bergen County Historical Society in River Edge, NJ.

Founder Denise Piccino is a professional ballet teacher, dancer, and choreographer. She has studied ballet with the late Irine Fokine (niece of the great choreographer Michel Fokine), and at the American Ballet Theater School.  In recent years, Miss Piccino studied 18th century dance and music with Chip and Francis Hendricksen.

18th Century Music with Ridley and Anne Enslow

Ridley and Anne Enslow will appear in period dress; and sing and play instruments that are appropriate to the colonial period. For Ridley, that’s an 18th-century violin built in France in 1776. For Anne, it’s the hammered dulcimer, a trapezoidal instrument with nearly 100 strings that are struck with little wooden hammers. And of course, they bring along the star of the show—a little wooden dancing figure called a limberjack. Their limberjack has been painted to look like General George Washington.

Guided Museum Tours

On this tour, you'll see the entire Museum and all of its gallery spaces. Learn how tailors, school teachers, and enslaved people operated as secret agents gathering intelligence for the American cause in our newest exhibition, Confidential: The American Revolution's Agents of Espionage. You can even decode a secret message hidden in the object labels using a cipher wheel! Then, stand in our historic Long Room where George Washington gave his famous farewell toast to his officers on December 4, 1783 and explore the history of the American Flag in our Flag Gallery. On your tour, keep your eyes open for a lock of George Washington's hair, Martha Washington's shoe, and other treasures of the revolutionary past!