Boston 1775

I’ve written before about how Henry Howell Williams came from a wealthy, well-connected Roxbury family. Close relatives married member...

Back in spring 2019 I reported on the new scholarly conclusion that the painting shown here, for decades said to be Gilbert Stuart ’s portr...

William Fitzmaurice was born in Dublin in 1737 and grew up in rural southern Ireland. His parents were from aristocratic families, though ne...

As I quoted yesterday, on 10 Nov 1780 Latin School rector Heinrich Verheyk sent American diplomat John Adams a letter stating that his el...

Speaking of Lt. Gov. Thomas Oliver , here’s a painting that in 1929 was sold to the Museum of Fine Arts for $2,500 as a portrait of Oliver ...

At the start of the Revolutionary War, William Eustis (1753-1825) was a medical student of Dr. Joseph Warren . A son of Dr. Benjamin Eus...

Earlier this month Craig LaBan reported for the Philadelphia newspapers on the portrait shown here. In recent decades this been widely id...

The “Landsdowne portrait” of George Washington , painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1796 and purchased by the Smithsonian in 2001, is scheduled...

In Dealings with the Dead (1856), Lucius Manlius Sargent told this anecdote about the Rev. Mather Byles, Sr. , a Loyalist minister who s...

In sorting out the various stories of how George Washington ’s portrait was removed from the White House before the arrival of British tro...

Busy in the background of the accounts of saving George Washington ’s portrait from the advancing British army in 1814 are the servants—t...

When Charles Carroll of Bellevue ’s son claimed that his father had saved the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington in the White...

Among the most famous legends of Dolley Madison is that she saved Gilbert Stuart ’s portrait of George Washington from the White House as...

Yesterday I mentioned Gilbert Stuart ’s “Lansdowne portrait” of George Washington now hanging at the Smithsonian. While researching the...

After George Washington died in 1799, his library of 900+ volumes was catalogued and divided among family members. Like about 300 more vo...

The British art dealer Philip Mould saw this portrait in a New York gallery, labeled as “Portrait of a Woman with a Feather in her hat” a...

A loyal Boston 1775 reader alerted me to this event in Philadelphia. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania will host a display of docum...

Science magazine’s website reports on the new paper “What did the early American presidents really look like?: Gilbert Stuart portraits a...

Edward Rothstein reviews new NYC African Burying Ground Museum for NY TIMES: nyti.ms/cZSQ0A # Went out tonight in storm for event. GAHHHHHH...

Before addressing the changing fortunes of Horatio Gates ’s legal father, I thought I’d share visual evidence that might be pertinent to the...