American Revolution museum honors filmmaker Ken Burns

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is being honored in Philadelphia with an award from the Museum of the American Revolution.

The museum announced Thursday that Burns will receive the Gerry Lenfest Spirit of the American Revolution Award. The museum says the award honors Burns' "lifetime of work advancing understanding of our national history and revolutionary spirit."

The medal and $25,000 prize will be presented at a private event at the museum on April 11.

The museum's chairman emeritus H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest, who died in August, created the award to recognize distinguished achievement in advancing public awareness and understanding of history and of its relevance in the "American experiment."

Burns is now planning an American Revolution project.

He tells the Philadelphia Inquirer he wants to do for the American Revolution what he did for the Civil War and the Vietnam War.