George Washington Letter: Revolution 250.

The Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story 1763–1783 exhibition will run from Wednesday 24th June to Sunday 29th November 2026 at The National Archives in Kew. The exhibition will trace the birth of the United States through documents from both sides of the Atlantic.

Highlights include the Stamp Act and the Tea Act, which fuelled unrest in the American colonies, as well as accounts of the Boston Tea Party protest and a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

As part of the event a letter signed by George Washington accepting British surrender, will go on display. The document, written in October 1781 after the British defeat at Yorktown, Virginia, marked the beginning of the end of the American Revolutionary War and set in motion the negotiations that led to the 1783 Treaty of Paris, when Britain formally recognised the independence of the United States. Given to British Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, the letter was taken to his home at Audley End in Essex after the war and remained in the family archive until it was presented to the Public Record Office in 1880.