Path to Liberty: Martha Washington
Opening November 2026
Coming November 2026 to the Adeline Moses Loeb Gallery, the next exhibition in Fraunces Tavern Museum's Path to Liberty series will turn to the nation's First Lady, Martha Washington. The exhibit will center around Martha's experience during the Revolutionary War through a closer look at her travels to—and work within—the Continental Army's winter encampments from 1777 to 1782. The Museum will discuss the ways in which Martha established the roles and expectations of the First Lady, as well as how her work during the war emerged from a broader movement of women who contributed to the Patriot cause as camp followers, spies, and domestic laborers.
The Museum will highlight several treasures from its permanent collection, including a slipper owned by Martha Washington. Through the generous efforts of George Washington's Mount Vernon, the Museum will also display a page reproduced from George Washington's account book that details Martha's travel expenses between winter camps during the war. Additionally, the Museum is grateful to its collaborators at The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History for lending two letters from their collection: one from Lucy Knox to her husband Henry Knox where she states the desire to join her husband at winter camp after discovering that Martha Washington will be present, and a letter from Martha Washington to her friend Hannah Boudinot, expressing relief at the war's end and hopes for a return to peace.
