Philip Mead (historian)

Dr. Philip C. Mead, an American historian specializing in the period of the American Revolution, is Chief Historian and Curator[1] of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

Mead served as a project historian for exhibition development beginning in 2011, and joined the Museum staff as historian and curator in 2014.[2] He co-curated the Museum's award-winning core exhibition, and helped to shape the media experiences and public programs.[3][4] He then led the collections and exhibitions team through five special exhibitions, including most recently, When Women Lost the Vote: A Revolutionary Story, 1776-1807, which broke new ground by identifying the names of large numbers of women voters in early New Jersey.[5]

Mead earned a doctorate in American history from Harvard University in 2012.[4] Mead's doctoral dissertation, Melancholy Landscapes: Writing Warfare in the American Revolution, was written under Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and read by Jill Lepore, and draws on the diaries of 169 Revolutionary Army soldiers.[6][7] Mead previously served as a lecturer at Harvard University from 2012-2014.[8] In 2016, he co-edited with Gordon S. Wood a book of essays, Essays by “The Free Republican,” 1784–1786.

In 2014, Mead rediscovered and authenticated George Washington's silk shoulder ribbon in the Harvard University collections.[9] In 2017, Mead discovered the only known period image of General George Washington's Revolutionary War tent in the field.[10] In 2019, he led the team that discovered poll lists featuring the names of women and Black men who voted in New Jersey in the years following the Revolutionary War.[11]