The Bostonians in distress – Antique Wall Art
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
A window into the past: The Bostonians in distress, preserved in this historic print. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.
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The Bostonians in distress
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A cage labeled "Boston" holds the town's residents in this mezzotint, whose title, *The Bostonians in Distress*, makes the joke plain. The original imprint credits London publishers R. Sayer and J. Bennett and is dated November 19, 1774, a few months after Parliament passed the Boston Port Act, which closed the harbor to trade in punishment for the Boston Tea Party. British printmakers used satirical images like this one to mock colonial resistance and to portray Massachusetts as a captive of its own defiance. This copy is a reversed second impression without the imprint, which suggests the plate was copied and the image circulated widely in Britain during the imperial crisis.
| Created / published | London : Printed for R. Sayer and J. Bennett, Map & Printsellers, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs, 1774 Novr. 19. |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print : mezzotint. |
| Genre | v. 5 |
| Notes | Title from item. Second impression, reversed, lacking imprint, but with cage labeled Boston." Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I |
| Subjects | Prisoners--Massachusetts--Boston--1770-1780. Cages--Massachusetts--Boston--1770-1780. Politics & government--Massachusetts--1770-1780. United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,130 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-109494 |
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