Image 10:

Paul Revere
American
Engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770

American Antiquarian Society

Image #11:

John Singleton Copley
American, 1737-1815
Paul Revere, 1768
Oil on canvas, 35 x 28 ½"

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Gift of Joseph W. Revere, William B. Revere, and Edward H.R. Revere 30.781

Information:
This engraving was created by the Patriot silversmith Paul Revere to commemorate the Boston Massacre. Paul Revere lived and worked at the same time and in the same city as Nathaniel Hurd. In addition to living and working in the same city, Paul Revere and Nathaniel Hurd were both silversmiths who learned their trades through apprenticeships with their respective fathers. Both silversmiths also had their portraits painted by John Singleton Copley, and apparently Hurd once engraved some of Revere's silver.

By 1768 when this portrait of Paul Revere was painted by John Singleton Copley, the Townshend Acts' duties on tea were causing rising resentment in the colonies towards England. The fact that Revere is shown working on a teapot may hold political significance (Quinn, p248). This portrait appears to fulfill the potential that the incomplete portrait of Hurd did not. In the portrait of Paul Revere we see an artisan in his work clothes and environment. Yet, Revere appears to be a gentleman worker; his hands and the table he is working on are perfectly clean.

Vocabulary:
engraving - image made by taking the impression from an engraved and inked metal or wood block.
Patriot - a colonial who believed that America should not be ruled by England.
silversmith - one whose occupation is making and repairing articles of silver.
apprenticeship - a common way for young men to learn a trade during colonial times. Boys were often apprenticed to a master tradesman for a prescribed period of time to acquire the skills of the trade by watching and working with their experienced master.
portrait - a work of art that represents a specific person.
Townshend Acts - (1767) laws passed by Parliament that taxed goods such as glass, paper, silk, lead, and tea in the American colonies.

Suggested Websites:

• http://www.paulreverehouse.org "The Paul Revere House"
  *This sight is interesting and fun. It could act as a good introduction to thinking about life in colonial Boston and the 'About Face' exhibit.
• http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/chronicle/episode1.html "Liberty: Chronicle of the Revolution: Boston 1774"
• http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/game/ "Road to Revolution: A Revolutionary Game" Suggested website:

Source:Quinn, Karen E. "Paul Revere," in Rebora, Carrie and Staiti, Paul, et. al. John Singleton Copley in America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, 1995. pp. 246-249

Suggested Lessons: