Detail View: JCB Archive of Early American Images: The able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught.
|
Accession number:
|
29836
|
|
Record number:
|
29836-7
|
|
JCB call number:
|
DC R888a
|
|
Image title:
|
The able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught.
|
|
Creator 1:
|
Paul Revere
|
|
Creator 1 dates:
|
1734-1818
|
|
Creator 1 role:
|
Sculp
|
|
Place image published:
|
[Boston]
|
|
Image publisher:
|
[Isaiah Thomas]
|
|
Image date:
|
[1774]
|
|
Image function:
|
frontispiece
|
|
Technique:
|
engraving
|
|
Image dimension height:
|
9.1 cm.
|
|
Image dimension width:
|
14.8 cm.
|
|
Page dimension height:
|
21.7cm.
|
|
Page dimension width:
|
12.8 cm.
|
|
Materials medium:
|
ink
|
|
Materials support:
|
paper
|
|
Languages:
|
English
|
|
Description:
|
Cartoon showing a European gentleman with the Boston Port Bill in his pocket pouring tea down a [native American] woman's mouth. She is being held down by a lascivious gentleman at her feet and a judge at her arms. A woman holding a spear and shield covers her eyes while a gentleman holds a sword with "Military Law" on it. In the background is a scene of "Boston cannonaded" and in the foreground is a tattered paper containing Boston's petition to England.
|
|
Source Title:
|
The royal American magazine, or Universal repository of instruction and amusement. For June, 1774.
|
|
Source place of publication:
|
Boston
|
|
Source publisher:
|
Printed by and for I. Thomas, near the Market ...
|
|
Source date:
|
1774
|
|
notes:
|
Britannia weeps as Frederick, Lord North, pours tea into the mouth of America, while a Frenchman and a Spaniard (with the Order of the Golden Fleece) watch from the side. William Murray, first earl of Mansfield (Lord Chief Justice) and an opponent of repealing the Stamp Act, holds America's wrist while John Montagu, fourth earl of Sandwich (First Lord of the Admiralty), holds her ankles. The man with a sword represents John Stuart, earl of Bute, (prime minister for George III from 1762 to 1763 and instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Paris) in a Scottish hat and kilt. Revere copied this image from an original in London Magazine, Apr. 1774, vol. 43, p. 185; the only change being that Revere added the word "tea" to the teapot. The Boston Port Bill, levied as a punishment for the Boston Tea Party, was signed into law on March 31, 1774, and provided the final wedge between Massachusetts and the crown. Image is placed horizontally on page. 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. 84-85; British Museum no. 5226a; Shadwell, W.J. American Printmaking, 39; http://www.webcom.com/frost/abledoctor.html (Mar. 2004)
|
|
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:
|
Indigenous peoples
|
|
Subject headings:
|
Political cartoons
|
|
Subject headings:
|
Emblems--America
|