Date/Time
Date(s) - 24 Mar 2014
5:15 PM - 6:30 PM
Location
Class of 1978 Pavilion, Special Collections Center
Category(ies) No Categories
Theresa Fairbanks Harris (Yale Center for British Art and Yale University Art Gallery)
“Paul Revere’s Boston Massacre (1770). Historical and Technical Analysis”
5:15 in the Class of ’78 Pavilion, in the Kislak Center for Special Collections on the 6th floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library
“This talk is the beginning of a collaborative, interdisciplinary research project centering on Paul Revere’s engraving and etching of the Boston Massacre Perpetrated in King Street. Boston on March 5th, 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt. This is the most iconic print from the American Colonial period. The incident depicted in a most inflammatory manner was made for propaganda promoting the patriot’s cause. The print and those related to it by other artists were widely disseminated throughout New England and London. Even after its creation the print was restruck, new plates and copies were made to perpetuate this event which was symbolic in the minds of the American people.
Many copies of this print exist, some of which are from the original plate, but printed at a later date by others than Paul Revere. Sorting out vintage prints has long been a conundrum for scholars. Part of this project will involve close examination of the physical materials and close visual analysis to help distinguish what prints are from Revere’s lifetime.
In addition to being a silversmith, Paul Revere was a patriot revolutionary and Son of Liberty. He held many interesting positions situating him at the center of the early colonial struggle. Understanding the print’s history and its maker will reveal how it has captivated the imaginations of Americans for 243 years .
Theresa Fairbanks Harris is the Senior Conservator of Works on Paper (including photographs, miniatures and Asian works) for the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art. She has worked for both institutions since 1982 and has been a Lecturer in the History of Art Depart at Yale University and in the Yale Art School. She is a graduate of Yale College 1977, holding a double major in History of Art and Fine Arts. She then moved on to receive her Master’s degree in Conservation at the University of Delaware and acquired a Certificate in Conservation at Harvard Art Museums in 1980. >From 1981 to 1982, she worked as the Paper Conservator at the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory and the Head of Paper Conservation at National Museum of American History. Her joint publications include: Changing Impressions: Marcantonio Raimondi & Sixteenth- Century Print Connoisseurship; Papermaking and the Art of Watercolor in Eighteenth-Century Britain-Paul Sandby and The Whatman Paper Mill; Thoughts on the Condition and Care of a Leonardo Da Vinci Self-Portrait (at press), Gold Discovered: John Singleton Copley’s Portrait Miniatures; and Paul Revere’s Boston Massacre…(at press). Her areas of interest of research and teaching are wide ranging. They include Western and Asian materials, artists’ materials and techniques and technical art history.
All are welcome! Please forward this email widely to any who might be interested. Those who do not hold University of Pennsylvania ID cards should bring another form of photo identification in order to enter the library building.