Marshall House elects Distinguished Historian

Friederike Baer elected The Marshall House Distinguished Historian

2024

The Marshall House is pleased to announce the election of Friederike Baer as The Marshall House Distinguished Historian.

Professor Baer is a leading researcher and writer of the American Revolution on participation by troops from German principalities fighting alongside the British Army.

Her book Hessians was awarded the 2023 Society of the Cincinnati Prize and the 2022 American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia's Book Award.

Professor Baer continues to research in preparation of further publication.  Her website is https://friederikebaer.com/ .

The Saratoga, NY area is fortunate to have presentations by this eminent researcher. She has spoken at the Saratoga Battlefield, and at the Women in War Symposiums originated by The Marshall House.

This is the first such recognition by The Marshall House Inc., not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to educate the general public about the historical role of women in war, with a particular emphasis on the American Revolutionary War.  Part of the organization’s work is to support preservation of the historic Marshall House in Schuylerville, New York.

 

 


What does the future hold?

 

The historian William Leete Stone in the eighteen seventies advocated the preservation of The Marshall House as a landmark of the Revolutionary War.

Later, in 1901, John Henry Brandow, author of the “Story of Old Saratoga”, urged the same objective. In the nineteen twenties and again in the nineteen thirties, at the time when the State of New York was creating what was to become the Saratoga National Historical Park, attempts made to raise funds for this purpose did not meet with success.

In 2002 The Marshall House was designated a National Historic Place. Some architectural changes made to the house in 1868 disqualified it for National Landmark status though the historical elements of the building were carefully preserved.

Since the time of the Revolution thousands of visitors, many of whom were prominent historians, public personalities and others interested in the riveting story told by the Baroness Charlotte Riedesel about her experiences in the house during the closing days of the Battles of Saratoga have always been welcome visitors.

The Marshall House remains the sole remaining witness building to the victory at Saratoga. Beyond the merit of this claim, the house also tells the story of a house and home that reflects adaptation to changes in the ways people lived and yet live.

Unlike buildings that have been preserved as museums, frozen in time and void of vitality, The Marshall House is alive with an allure official landmarks lack. This distinction, added to its rôle in the Revolution, grants the house an unusual appeal of its own.

The question arises: What shall become of it? First the Marshall family and now the Bullard family have been its devoted caretakers for two centuries. Future owners may be less so. Hence, one wonders, what does the future hold?