Commemoration of the American Revolution

Besides local sites such as Bunker Hill, one of the first national pilgrimages for memorial tourists was Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate, which attracted ten thousand visitors a year by the 1850s.

[4] David Ryan, noting that the Bicentennial was celebrated a year after the United States' humiliating 1975 withdrawal from Vietnam, says the Ford administration stressed the themes of renewal and rebirth based on a restoration of traditional values, and presented a nostalgic approach to 1776 that made it seem eternally young and fresh.

For example, some note the American Revolution has its Moses-like leader (George Washington),[6] its "prophets" (Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine), "disciples" (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison) and "martyrs" (Boston Massacre, Crispus Attucks, Nathan Hale), as well as its "devils" (Benedict Arnold), "holy sites" (Valley Forge, Bunker Hill), rituals (Boston Tea Party), "holy symbol" (the new flag), "sacred holidays" (Independence Day, Washington's Birthday), and "holy scriptures" which are carefully studied or legally applied (The Declaration of Independence, United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights).

[8][9] In the 1920s, Washington and Jefferson, together with Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, were chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and approved by President Calvin Coolidge to be the four American heroes celebrated at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Nancy Rhoden, a Canadian specialist on the Revolutionary era has evaluated the evidence, accuracy, and the historical themes employed by twelve Hollywood films featuring the American Revolution from 1939 to 2002.