This is definitely a military-based show. I counted six powder horns (one pierced by a musket ball), five swords, and four muskets, versus two looking-glasses and one clockface. Some of the items are already famous, such as one of the lanterns said to have hung in the Old North Church and William Diamond’s drum.
Other objects I’d never seen before in person or photograph. For instance, John Hancock’s letter to members of the Committee of Supplies in west Cambridge shows Patriot leaders discussing the likelihood of British troops heading to Concord before they went to bed on the 18th.
A shovel sheathed in iron is labeled as probably one of the fortification-building tools the Massachusetts Provincial Congress had collected in Concord. I wondered, had James Brewer taken this shovel from deacon Richard Boynton’s forge inside Boston? (I guess I haven’t told that story on Boston 1775 yet.)
There aren’t many portraits in this exhibit, but one familiar face on the walls was the watercolor painting of Maj. John Pitcairn that I discussed earlier this year. Its label offers a new theory of its origin, and I’m curious about the evidence behind that.
It was striking how many artifacts in this show come from local historical societies, and different historical societies. New England was built with lots of separate towns, and they have their separate treasures, many loaned for this show. Thus, from Arlington (formerly Menotomy) come not just the Royal Artillery cartridge pouch discussed back here but also a panel from little Joel Adams’s door and part of the meetinghouse silverware that some British soldiers carried into Boston.
Another element of the exhibit I liked was the use of stripes on the wall to show relative size of the British and American forces in action. You can see those in the background of the photo above, from Donna Seger’s report on visiting Concord on Patriots Day. (The foreground shows the gun flints found in two lines in Concord’s training field, where militia troops lined up before moving against the regulars at the North Bridge.)
If you go to the Concord Museum for this exhibit, don’t miss two other Revolution-related rooms: the “Last Muster” photographs of aged veterans and the portion of the “Why Concord?” exhibit downstairs that deals with the shift to independence.
"Another element of the exhibit I liked was the use of stripes on the wall to show relative size of the British and American forces in action."
ReplyDeleteThis is an effective way to represent the comparative numbers. There's a famous 19th-century chart of Napoleon's invasion of Russia that is a classic example of this kind of diagram. It reads left-to-right in brown for the invasion, and then right-to-left in black for the retreat. It's hard to imagine a better illustration of the destruction of an army.
I recall seeing that in one of Edward Tufte's books, I think. It also offered some information about the route, which I don't think is so easy to do in the Concord march because of so much overlap.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if anyone's tried the same thing with the two-pronged American attack on Quebec in 1775-76.
Thanks for the detailed review J.L. I'll definitely be making time for a trip to the museum when I'm in Boston over the 4th of July.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting part about the letter written by John Hancock was that it was written at 9:00 p.m. on April 18, 1775. Paul Revere didn't arrive to the Hancock-Clarke House until close to midnight so when Revere arrived he gave Hancock and Samuel Adams information they already knew. Well the trip to them wasn't a total lose, Revere, with the help of John Lowell, did help retrieve Hancock's trunk before the British soldiers arrived.
ReplyDeleteIf Hancock and Adams were primarily worried about being arrested, that might help to explain why Hancock left that trunk of important papers at Buckman's tavern. Then it wouldn't be in his possession when the regulars hunted him down.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, that could simply have been where John Lowell was lodging, and as Hancock's secretary for the occasion he had charge of all the papers.