The Queen Sofía Spanish Institute (QSSI) in partnership with the Royal Academy of History of Spain and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has produced three posters with captions in both Spanish and English that highlight the little-known history of Spain’s crucial support of the American Revolution.
18,450 posters have been distributed in 2023 in the U.S. within the Affiliated School Network of the Gilder Lerhman Institute of American History. Approximately 730,000 students accessed the posters in all 50 states and schools in 20 countries abroad also received the posters.
The QSSI is proud of its partnership with the Royal Academy of History of Spain (RAH), which aims at making teachers and students aware of the contributions of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world to the history and culture of the United States through the poster project and others. The RAH, an institution founded in 1738, supported the project through researching and providing the historical content of these posters.
Each poster includes an important primary source document with didactic bilingual texts developed by historians:
This is the portrait of Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Spanish Louisiana at the time of the American Revolution who was granted honorary US citizenship in 2014 by President Obama for his incredible aid to the Continental Army. In this poster, students will learn about what Bernardo de Gálvez did to help George Washington’s army achieve independence by reading the official resolution that granted him this highest honor.
This poster includes an engraved depiction of the Battle of Pensacola, which Gálvez led as army commander, and the capturing of several English forts by the interracial contingent of Spanish soldiers, revolutionaries, and their allies.
In this poster, students discover what George Washington wrote to Diego de Gardoqui and learn more about the fundamental role that Spain played in the American Revolution. Diego de Gardoqui was a Spanish merchant who helped supply the Continental Army with much-needed weapons, medicines, and uniforms and who later became a personal friend to Washington and the first Spanish ambassador to the United States.
This project was made possible by the partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Royal Academy of History of Spain. It was made possible through the support of AECID, Iberdrola, Avangrid and Fundación Consejo España-EEUU.
