Museum Guide News
Philadelphia and the Greater Delaware Valley Region Had a Important Role in Developing the US Navy!
The people of Philadelphia and the Greater Delaware Valley region have played very important roles in the development of the Navy over the past two and a half centuries, building some of the Navy’s most iconic and historic vessels.
Early shipbuilding in Philadelphia, including the United States and the Constitution, was done along the waterfront at shipyards owned by Pennsylvania Quaker Joshua Humphreys. A formal navy yard in Philadelphia was created at Southwark in 1800 before moving to a bigger plot of land at its current location on League Island in the 1870s. For the next ninety years, the yard served as one of the Navy’s primary shipbuilding and repair facilities.
Over the course of two centuries, important Naval vessels were designed, built, and launched in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, from the Swedish-American engineer John Ericsson’s USS Princeton in 1843, to the USS Michigan in 1904, to the USS Francis Robinson during World War II.
Though the Philadelphia Naval Yard ended most of its activities at the shipyard in the 1990s, the legacy left by the vessels produced there and at other local shipyards looms large in US naval history, especially at this 250th anniversary of the United States Navy.
In partnership with the American Swedish Historical Museum, the National Museum of the United States Navy (NMUSN) is proud to present, And Let Victory Tell the Rest: 250 Years of Shipbuilding in Greater Philadelphia, opening June 26th at ASHM. The exhibit will include artifacts from USS New Ironsides, USS Michigan, a model of the John Ericsson- designed USS Passaic, among others.
Visit -https://www.americanswedish.org/exhibitions/and-let-victory-tell-rest-250-years-shipbuilding-greater-philadelphia to learn more about the exhibit and its related events.
And Let Victory Tell the Rest is part of Homecoming250, citywide celebration of this historic anniversary in Philadelphia. https://www.homecoming250.org/
US Navy Shipbuilding in Philadelphia, was written by Gordon Calhoun, Historian & Curator, National Museum of the United States Navy and Edited by the American Swedish Historical Museum.
