A traveling museum led by Virginia’s American Revolution 250 Commission will make a stop at Alexandria’s waterfront for the Sails on the Potomac festival this weekend.
The VA250 Mobile Museum Experience will be at Sails on the Potomac from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, June 12 through Sunday, June 14. Visitors can tour the museum for free at the waterfront on Wolfe Street.
Launched in 2025 by the Virginia 250 Commission, the museum travels to community events and schools around the commonwealth to share Virginia’s role in the American Revolution and features an exhibit called “Out of Many, One.”
“It presents the revolution in 1775 and goes all throughout the war, presents the ideas and the people that helped essentially create our democracy,” Jeremy Martin, director of the VA250 Mobile Museum, told ALXnow. “A lot of other museums are focused on, let’s say, George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or James Madison, but where our main focus is really the people in general.”
Celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary in Alexandria is significant since the city’s 1749 founding predates the American Revolution. Sails on the Potomac, part of the statewide Sail250 initiative, will highlight Alexandria’s role in the nation’s founding.
“Alexandria has their deep ties to the founding era. It was an important colonial port, really kind of the main city that was near George Washington’s estate of Mount Vernon, and it’s a place where many of the ideas, the experiences, and the challenges really helped shape the country,” Martin said. “So, for us, being in Alexandria, it’s an opportunity to not only celebrate Virginia’s achievements, but just also be able to reflect on Virginia’s story, rather the first people who contributed to it.”
While the mobile museum has visited neighboring Arlington and Mount Vernon before, this is the first time it will be in Alexandria.
Martin says the tall ship tours are another way to bring history to life and engage visitors on the country’s founding. Visitors can reserve free 30-minute timed tickets to visit the tall ships. Other highlights of the festival are the 48th annual ALX Jazz Fest, fireworks at 9 p.m. Saturday, June 13, a 250th history village, a 250th history outpost, a food and drink row and an arts area.
Tall ships appearing at the festival include the Kalmar Nyckel, a full-size replica of a Swedish Navy warship and colonial vessel; the Sultana, a full-size replica of a Royal Navy schooner that played a role in tensions leading up to the American Revolution; the Providence, a replica of an early Continental Navy ship docked in Alexandria; and the Gazela, the largest oldest ship at the festival dating back to 1883 as a fishing vessel.
According to Martin, Virginia’s history has been a draw for tourism during America’s 250th anniversary. Along with being home to Founding Fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Virginia also contributed the second-most soldiers in the American Revolution.
“Having the mobile museum, while it also brings inclusive and accessible history to people throughout the commonwealth, it’s also an opportunity for people to be able to look beyond the mobile museum to go to different historic sites throughout the commonwealth that help create the nation,” Martin said.
