In Fall 2025, the Rutgers Oral History Archives had the great pleasure of having Kathryn Lenau SAS'26 as a public history intern. Kathryn's semester-long internship culminated in the development of the "Living in a Revolutionary Moment" virtual exhibit. The exhibit is now published as part of ROHA's collaboration with RevolutionNJ, a partnership between the New Jersey Historical Commission (NJHC), a division of the New Jersey Department of State, and the nonprofit Crossroads of the American Revolution Association to plan the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution in New Jersey.
My name is Kathryn Lenau and I graduated in January 2026 with a B.A. in history and economics. I currently work full- time as a legal assistant.
Our goal with this virtual exhibit was to celebrate the United States Semiquincentennial by drawing connections between the American Revolution and ROHA’s collection of interviews. We asked ourselves questions such as, “What does the American Revolution have in common with other struggles for freedom and equality discussed in our collection of interviews?” I decided to focus on interviews that discussed the Civil Rights Movement because I felt that they most directly related to the major themes of the American Revolution. I wanted to avoid taking interview quotes out of context just to loosely tie together distant historical events, so I searched carefully until I found quotes that drew stronger links between the Revolution and events described in the interview. With this exhibit, we hope to remind readers that the American Revolution did not end in 1783 because it continued to shape future efforts for equality.
