Snapshots of the Past

The American rattle snake – Antique Wall Art

The American rattle snake, [London] : Pubd. by W. Humphrey, No. 227 Strand, 1782 April 12th. — historic print
The American rattle snake, [London] : Pubd. by W. Humphrey, No. 227 Strand, 1782 April 12th.. Historic print from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(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

This historic print of The American rattle snake brings a moment of history to your wall. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

The American rattle snake

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Here the rattlesnake stands in for America itself, an emblem the colonists had claimed since Benjamin Franklin's 1754 "Join, or Die" woodcut. The catalog subject tags tie the print to the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781. Published by William Humphrey on the Strand in April 1782, it appeared a few months after Lord Cornwallis gave up his army to Washington and the French, when opinion in London was turning against the war. The print is attributed to James Gillray, a caricaturist whose later work would make him famous, though the attribution is a scholarly judgment rather than a certainty.

Created / published[London] : Pubd. by W. Humphrey, No. 227 Strand, 1782 April 12th.
Medium1 print : etching.
GenreCartoons (Commentary) British 1780-1790.Etchings 1780-1790.
NotesTitle from item. Attributed to Gillray. Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 5, no. 5973 Forms part of: British Cartoon Prints Collection (Library of Congress). Published in: The American Revolution in drawings and prints; a checklist of 1765-1790 graphics in the Library of Congress / Compiled by Donald H. Cresswell, with a foreword by Sinclair H. Hitchings. Washington : [For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], 1975, no. 812. Published in: Eyes of the nation : A visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga, Curators of the Library of Congress, Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.
SubjectsSnakes--1780-1790. Surrenders--British--Virginia--Yorktown--1780-1790. Yorktown (Va.)--History--Siege, 1781. United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Surrenders--British.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,465 × 1,176 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-218463

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