WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is the home of the gunboat Philadelphia, a rare surviving intact American revolutionary war fighting vessel that was part of a small American fleet. The Philadelphia sank on Lake Champlain during the Battle of Valcour Island 250 years ago Oct. 11, 1776, but the small fleet was successful in delaying the advancing British troops.
The Philadelphia is currently undergoing a multi-year conservation treatment, on view to the public in the “The Gunboat Philadelphia Preservation Project” exhibition, and the museum will mark the 250th anniversary of the historic battle with updates about the conservation treatment and new historical research into the boat’s construction and time afloat. The findings are the result of work by curators from the museum’s Division of Military and Society and a team of underwater archeologists and maritime conservators from Texas A&M’s Nautical Archaeology Program, working under contract with the Smithsonian. These new discoveries have informed a detailed treatment plan that will help the museum ensure the survival of the Philadelphia for generations to come.
“The gunboat Philadelphia remains a powerful symbol of the earliest days of the Revolutionary War and emergence of the new nation,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s Elizabeth MacMillan Director. “Coinciding with the nation’s 250th celebration, this is an ideal time to spotlight and share the rich history of this National Historic Landmark.”
The gunboat Philadelphia was constructed in the summer of 1776, when the Americans mobilized some 11,000 people to come to the southern end of Lake Champlain to quickly build fortifications and a fleet that could stop a British invasion from Canada. Over the course of just a few months, the Patriots pieced together a small fleet that battled the British at the Battle of Valcour Island. British cannon fire sank the Philadelphia on the first day of that engagement, Oct. 11. Although defeated, the fleet succeeded in delaying the British. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia sank to the bottom of Lake Champlain where it remained until a salvage team led by Lorenzo Hagglund found and raised it in 1935. On view in the Lake Champlain region until 1961, the gunboat and its original equipment, as well as the cannon ball that issued the ship’s fatal blow, were moved to the new National Museum of History and Technology (the museum’s original name) before the completion of the museum’s construction and opening to the public Jan. 23, 1964.
The museum opened “The Gunboat Philadelphia Preservation Project” exhibition in August 2025 to allow visitors to follow the work to clean and stabilize the vessel in real time, through viewing windows. In fall 2025, the gunboat team dry cleaned the vessel with small brushes, discovering items from the mid-1900s and evidence of rodents, most likely from the ship’s time in a barn on the shore of Lake Champlain, prior to coming to the museum. During the winter months, the conservators diligently removed sediment from Lake Champlain from the bottom interior of the boat, amounting to 174 pounds of debris. When cleaning was completed, the team moved to work on the cannons and the anchor, removing old lacquer that was placed on all the iron fittings in the 1930s to protect them from rusting. Using pads soaked in acetone, the lacquer was disintegrated to make way for modern conservation techniques and materials that will inhibit further deterioration of the iron.
In summer 2026, the conservation team focused on the stabilization of the gunboat hull timbers, paying specific attention to the interior planking called ceiling planks, by removing compacted soil and other matter that had collected on the surface over 60 years of continuous display in the museum. With brushes and formulated solutions, the team gently removed the debris from the wood surfaces at the rate of approximately one board foot per hour. By the end of September, the ceiling planks were completed, and the conservation team has begun to focus on the decking inside the hull and the raised midship gun platforms.
New research in historical records have brought to light the names and stories of the individuals and companies among the 11,000 Americans who worked to build and sail the gunboat. The roster spans the breadth of American society at the time, including men and women who labored cutting down trees, sawing them into boards, working 24/7 at a local iron forge to craft fittings for the fleet, assembling the vessels, manning them, and cooking, cleaning and caring for nearly one-third of the force that was sick at any one time that summer. The Patriots came from all along the East Coast, from Philadelphia up to Maine and Canada, and included French Canadians, Indigenous Americans, free and enslaved African Americans and people of Iberian, English, Scottish, Irish and Dutch heritage.
In his self-published pamphlet about the raising, “A Page from the Past,” Hagglund notes that portions of an arm bone, a skull fragment and teeth came up with the vessel. When the Smithsonian acquired the Philadelphia from Hagglund’s widow after he died in 1960, it also received dozens of artifacts that came up with the gunboat, including three teeth. In addition to the teeth that came to Smithsonian, three other teeth belonged to a collection of material from the Philadelphia that Hagglund gave to the funder of his expedition, brewer J. Rupert Schalk. When Schalk died in 1962, his Philadelphia collection ultimately went to Rear Adm. John E. Kirkpatrick, who was deeply interested in naval history. His collections became a foundation of the Oklahoma Science and Arts Foundation in Oklahoma City, now known as Science Museum Oklahoma, a Smithsonian Affiliate.
In addition, the Smithsonian and Science Museum Oklahoma teams have worked together with the U.S. Army Human Resources Command to plan the military burial of human remains that came up with the Philadelphia in 1935, an interment that will take place at Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville, New York, Tuesday, Oct. 13, as part of commemorations recognizing the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Valcour Island.
