Founding narratives: Revolutionary stories at historic houses

Abstract

Two American Revolutionary War era homes, now historic houses and sites for archaeological research, in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, serve as starting points for a consideration of memory, narrative and history. These are both sites where early nineteenth‐century women made history, mapping the political and military history of the American Revolution onto the domestic fabric of their homes by telling the stories of their recent ancestors, naming rooms and preserving furnishings. In their preservation efforts, these women may not have been primarily focused on telling their own stories, but they made an important statement on the role of domestic spaces in national history and for their own power as history makers. Through material and textual instruments of memory, these women transformed their individual memories into shared narratives, illuminating the process by which a ‘social memory’ of the Revolution was created.

Keywords:

• narrative
• house museums
• American Revolutionary War
• women and history

Acknowledgements

Thanks to both Save Our Heritage and the Lexington Historical Society who have continued the preservation work that was begun in the nineteenth century, supported archaeological work on their properties and shared the results of their historical research. I also appreciate the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers and discussions with Christina J. Hodge, with whom I co‐organised the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference session in 2009 for which the earliest version of this paper was prepared.