Object details
Object number
ARC.005208
Creator(s)
Title
Paul Revere's Ride
Date
1860
Medium
Ink on paper
Language
English
Dimensions
22.2 x 18.3 cm (8 3/4 x 7 3/16 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed in pencil (first page, upper left): Hennessy
Inscribed in pencil in James Thomas Fields' hand (second page, lower left): omit
Signed in pen (pasted on ninth page, lower right): Henry W. Longfellow
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the scholar and critic Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), Cambridge on 13 November 1902 for $1500 for a group of three manuscripts and an accompanying letter (ARC.005208, ARC.001493, ARC.005169, ARC.009209).
Commentary
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published one of his best known poems “Paul Revere’s Ride” in January 1861. This handwritten manuscript was used for the printings in the Boston Evening Transcript and The Atlantic Monthly, and the edits show the painstaking craftsmanship of the celebrated poet.
Bibliography
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. "Paul Revere's Ride." The Atlantic (January 1861).Christoph Irmscher, "'Listen and You Shall Hear': The Gardner Museum Autograph of Longfellow's 'Paul Revere's Ride',"" Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 15 April 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/longfellows-paul-reveres-ride
Gallery
Blue Room
Case
Crawford / Chapman Case
Rights and reproductions
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