#  Making a Nation: Technologies of the American Revolution 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **April 28, 2026** 

 06:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Science Center 469, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138**  



 

 



 

### **Free In-Person Panel Discussion**

Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, with the support of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation and Boston Revolution250, invites you to join a panel discussion exploring the technologies of the American Revolution. Paired with an exhibition featuring a series of objects from Harvard's 18th-century natural philosophy curriculum that highlight the role of surveying, electricity, and mathematics in the Revolutionary War and its wider historical moment in the Boston area. Technology was pivotal in the American Revolution and in the nascent country’s sense of identity, whether in the practical surveying and navigation instruction given to Harvard College students or the national pride in Benjamin Franklin’s experiments with electricity.

In partnership with Revolution250 and sponsored by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

Panel member details

- Emma Broder, Postdoctoral Fellow in Curatorial Practice, CHSI
- Joyce Chaplin, James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History, Harvard
- Christopher Parsons, Professor of History, Northeastern University
- Conevery Valencius, Professor of History, Boston College

The exhibition, *Revolutionary Technology*, will be open before the event in Science Center 371.

Reception with light fare to follow.

[View the event flyer](https://chsi.harvard.edu/sites/g/files/omnuum6316/files/2026-04/RevTec%20Poster%202.pdf)



 

 



 

 

 Share on:- [     Facebook ](#)
- [     Twitter ](#)
- [     Linkedin ](#)
 


 Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://chsi.harvard.edu/node/1902341/event-feed.ics)  Copy link link