"The Society of the Cincinnati is a vibrant community of fellowship and high purpose, dedicated to the memory of the heroes who secured the independence of the United States. We welcome your interest in our unique organization and invite you to learn more about us.
Established in 1783, as the American War for Independence drew to a close, the Society of the Cincinnati is the oldest private patriotic organization in the United States. The Society is also our nation's first hereditary organization. The founders of the Society assigned their descendants the task of preserving the memory of the patriotic sacrifices that made American liberty a reality.
As members of the Society, we take that task very seriously. Our educational work reaches all parts of the United States. We preserve and provide access to one of the world's great collections of books and manuscripts illuminating the history of the War for Independence and a remarkable collection of art and artifacts illustrating that war and the long history of our organization. These rich public programs are the heart of the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati.
The Society of the Cincinnati and our American Revolution Institute are dedicated to promoting scholarly and popular interest in the extraordinary generation that created our great republic. We encourage you to visit our headquarters in Washington, D.C., use our library, attend a lecture, tour our museum, or view one of our exhibitions. We invite you to join us in honoring the heroes who established our republic and who risked their lives and fortunes to defend the liberties we all enjoy."
Sincerely, 
Jonathan Tufts Woods
President General, The Society of the Cincinnati
CURRENT EXHIBITION
"Boom! Artillery in the American Revolution
October 1, 2016 — March 26, 2017
To win their independence, Americans had to create an effective artillery service able to challenge the British on the battlefield. They had to do all of this with little experience or preparation, while fighting a war with a major European power with a well-trained professional army, the world's largest navy, factories to manufacture munitions, craft facilities to build and maintain equipment, and a well-established system for recruiting and training artillerists.
Boom! Artillery in the American Revolution traces the development of the Continental Artillery during the Revolutionary War, a process shaped by broader technological and organizational changes in artillery that transformed it into a dominant force on European and American war battlefields. Henry Knox is the central character in this story. Appointed colonel and given command of the Continental Artillery at the age of twenty-five, Knox drove the development of the artillery service for the entire Revolutionary War. The artifacts, books, maps, manuscripts, and other objects in the exhibition are drawn from the collections of the Society of the Cincinnati, most importantly from its Robert Charles Lawrence Fergusson Collection, which documents the art of war in the eighteenth century."
