On November 9, 2025, Naval Documents of the American Revolution (NDAR) Project Director Christopher F. Minty delivered an invited lecture titled “Birth of a Navy: The Founding of the Continental Navy” at the fall meeting of the New York State Society of the Cincinnati, held at historic Anderson House in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Minty’s presentation explored the early origins of the Continental Navy and the complex debates that surrounded its creation in 1775. Drawing on correspondence, journals, and official records featured in NDAR’s digital archive, he traced how the Continental Congress’s decision to arm and deploy ships represented not only a strategic military step, but also a profound political statement about sovereignty, coordination, and the reach of a revolutionary state at sea.

The lecture highlighted how the NDAR project continues to recover and reinterpret the naval dimension of the American Revolution—documenting the experiences of sailors, shipbuilders, diplomats, and civilians whose efforts shaped the war’s maritime front. By contextualizing these materials within broader networks of Atlantic exchange and imperial conflict, NDAR reveals how the Revolution unfolded as both a continental and an oceanic story.

The Naval Documents of the American Revolution is edited and published by the Center for Digital Editing at the University of Virginia. NDAR’s ongoing work seeks to make the global and maritime dimensions of the American Revolution more accessible to scholars, students, and the public alike.