COLLECTION NAME:
JCB Archive of Early American Images
Accession number:
29836
Record number:
29836-4
JCB call number:
DC R888a
Image title:
The Hon[ora]ble. John Hancock, Esqr.
Creator 1:
Paul Revere
Creator 1 dates:
1734-1818
Creator 1 role:
sc
Place image published:
[Boston]
Image publisher:
[Isaiah Thomas]
Image date:
[1774]
Image function:
frontispiece
Technique:
engraving
Image dimension height:
10.5 cm.
Image dimension width:
9.3 cm.
Page dimension height:
21.8 cm.
Page dimension width:
13.8 cm.
Materials medium:
ink
Materials support:
paper
Languages:
English
Description:
Portrait of John Hancock flanked by a man in armor on one side and on the other side, Liberty, as a woman with a Phrygian cap on a staff, lion, and standing on a soldier with G.R. XXIX on his hat. Above the portrait is an angel sounding a trumpet. Also includes a scroll of the Magna Carta.
Source Title:
The royal American magazine, or Universal repository of instruction and amusement. For March, 1774
Source place of publication:
Boston
Source publisher:
Printed by and for I. Thomas, near the Market ...
Source date:
1774
notes:
Revere based his design on John Singleton Copley's portrait of John Hancock painted in 1765. The supporting frame follows the emblematic vignette bust portrait of Richard, Earl Temple, in The Scots Scourge, vol. 1, [London, 1765]. The text of Hancock's March 5, 1774, oration on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre follows the image in the magazine and can be found at http://www.law.umkc… The Liberty cap was based on the Phrygian cap of manumission of Asia Minor which was worn by slaves after they had been freed. It was adopted by the Sons of Liberty in America sometime after the French and Indian War in their rebellion against the British crown. Later as the "bonnet rouge," it became the symbol of the French Revolution. The infamous twenty-ninth British regiment had taken part in the Boston Massacre. Published first by Isaiah Thomas and then Joseph Greenleaf in Boston, this magazine was produced from January 1774 until April 1775 when the war put an end to publication.
Time Period:
1751-1800
References:
Brigham, C.S. Paul Revere's engravings, p. 82-83
Provenance/Donor:
Acquired in 1946.
Owner and copyright:
©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912
geographic area:
North America
Subject Area:
Artifacts, industry, and human activities
Subject Area:
Portraits
Subject headings:
Hancock, John, 1737-1793
Subject headings:
Emblems--America
- Active Media Group: