Picturing the Revolution

Throughout the American War for Independence, prints and drawings in the form of portraits, maps, satires, newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, battle plans, ceramics, and powder horns allowed many Euro-Americans—both those engaged in the conflict and those far removed from it—to envisage, record, and comment on the momentous events unfolding in British North America.

Using Historic Deerfield’s diverse collection of Revolutionary-era maps, pamphlets, portraits, and satirical cartoons, Picturing the Revolution highlights how Euro-Americans chose to identify major actors in the war, illustrate the landscape upon which the Revolution was fought, and communicate their perceptions, ideas, and concerns of the war and Revolutionary ideologies. In doing so, it underscores the diverse ways 18th-century Euro-Americans “pictured” or understood the Revolution and its objectives, while also revealing these sources’ limitations. Mining these symbolically rich images and textual sources reveals a complex political and social environment in which the Revolution unfolded on paper as much as it did on the battlefield, in the streets, and in families’ homes.

This exhibition has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.

Made possible with support from the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism.