The Philadelphia Gunboat Research Initiative 2024 Field Season

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

One of the most captivating exhibits at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is Benedict Arnold’s gunboat Philadelphia. Sunk after a ferocious naval battle with the British in October of 1776, Philadelphia, after nearly 160 years below the cold, fresh water of Lake Champlain, was raised from the depths in 1935 by Col. Lorenzo F. Haggulund. After its recovery, Philadelphia was displayed in the region before it was eventually transferred to the Smithsonian in 1964. The original site of its recovery was extensively investigated during the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s (LCMM) Valcour Bay Survey Project conducted from 1999 to 2004. In the summer of 2024, researchers from Texas A&M University's Nautical Archaeology Program partnered with the LCMM to initiate a new research project, building upon and expanding the foundational work of the earlier survey. This paper shares the results of the 2024 field season.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow