Greensboro History Museum Offers Rare Revolutionary War Artifact and Lecture

March 6, 2017

The first lecture of the 2017 Guilford Courthouse National Military Park Revolutionary Lecture Series will be held at 7 pm, March 14, at the Greensboro History Museum, 130 Summit Ave. The free lecture, “Equipping the Southern Army: Manufacturing Military Stores for an Insatiable Patron,” will be presented by Dr. Robert F. Smith, Assistant Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and author of Manufacturing Independence: Industrial Innovation in the American Revolution.

Guests at the lecture will be the first to see the rare and recently conserved knit cap worn by Colonel Arthur Forbis during the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781. Forbis, a local militiaman, was mortally wounded during the battle and this stained cap was kept by his family for generations. Dr. Paula Weller, Regent of the Colonel Arthur Forbis Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and Curator Susan Joyce Webster will be available to talk about Colonel Forbis and the cap.

Museum Director Carol Ghiorsi Hart notes, “Objects connect people to each other and to our past. With the help of the Colonel Forbis Chapter of the DAR, which funded preservation of the cap through our Adopt an Object program, the museum has been able to preserve this cap and its story for many generations to come.” Susan Joyce Webster, Curator of Costumes and Textiles said, “This cap is one of our rarest artifacts. The family entrusted us with this piece over 80 years ago to tell not only a story of national significance, but the story of a local farmer and his family in the 1780s.”

After the lecture, museum visitors will be able to see the Forbis Cap in the Voices of a City exhibition starting March 15. Reservations are required for the lecture and can be made by calling 336.288.1776.