
Masonic Certificate
1796 · engraving on wove paper, printed by Herbert Pasternack in 1954
plate: 34.8 x 25.5 cm (13 11/16 x 10 1/16 in.)
sheet: 55.9 x 39 cm (22 x 15 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art

Paul Revere was an American printmaker and engraver whose copper plates and woodcuts documented colonial life and Revolutionary politics with direct visual clarity. His most iconic work, the engraving of the Boston Massacre (1770), became a potent propaganda tool that shaped public sentiment during the Revolution. Working primarily in line engraving and etching, Revere combined technical skill with urgent political purpose, creating images that circulated widely as broadsides and prints. His practice exemplified the role of printmaking as a democratic medium in eighteenth-century America.
Source: Smithsonian Institution · Trust score: 50% · Updated 6d ago