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Primary sourceNewspaper article1770

The Coffin of Patrick Carr

Paul Revere · 1770

A 1770 Paul Revere woodcut notice announcing the death of Patrick Carr, another victim of the Boston Massacre in which Attucks died.

This notice about a fellow massacre victim helps explain the public reaction to the event that killed Attucks.

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Scan of a printed notice with a woodcut of a coffin marked P C, with a skull and crossbones, beside letterpress text announcing the death of Patrick Carr from a wound received in King Street.
Paul Revere (engraver), The Coffin of Patrick Carr, 1770.

About this source

What it is

This is a printed notice from 1770 combining a woodcut and letterpress text, made by engraver Paul Revere. It announces the death of Patrick Carr, who died from a wound received during the Boston Massacre.

Why it matters

Crispus Attucks was the first man killed in the Boston Massacre; Patrick Carr later died of his wounds too. This notice, with its coffin image, shows how Paul Revere and the Boston press used striking imagery to turn the deaths of ordinary colonists into a public cause against British rule.

Look closer

  • Why do you think a coffin image was used to announce a death like this?
  • What feelings might this notice have been meant to stir in readers?
  • What does this tell you about how the massacre's victims, including Attucks, were used to build public anger?

This newspaper article is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Crispus Attucks on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Hand-colored engraving of the Boston Massacre on King Street: British soldiers in red coats fire volleys through smoke at a crowd of colonists, with people wounded and dead on the ground, a church steeple and Butcher's Hall in the background, and a verse and caption printed below.Painting

Primary source

The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street

Paul Revere · 1770

Scanned page of the Boston Gazette, March 12, 1770, reporting the funeral of Boston Massacre victims. Four coffin illustrations labeled SG, SM, JC, and CA, each with a skull and crossbones, appear beneath the printed text.Newspaper article

Primary source

Boston Gazette Report on the Boston Massacre Funeral

12 March 1770

A mostly black scanned cover of a book with a white Library of Congress label at bottom left showing a barcode and number 00005705010, and red stamp; top left reads E 215 .4 .B75 in white call number text.Book

Primary source

A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston

James Bowdoin, Samuel Pemberton, Joseph Warren · 1770

Scan of a newspaper column of text with four coffin illustrations in a row, each with initials (SG, SM, JC, CA), a skull and crossbones, and a skull over crossed bones. The coffins are dark with white outlines. Text above and below describes the funerals of victims of the Boston Massacre.Painting

Primary source

Four Coffins of Men Killed in the Boston Massacre

Paul Revere · 12 March 1770

Photograph of a dark gray slate headstone with a rounded top edged with small stones, in a shaded graveyard with grass and other gravestones behind it. The inscription lists the remains of Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks and Patrick Carr, victims of the Boston Massacre, March 5th 1770, interred by order of the Town of Boston. It also notes Christopher Snider, aged 12, killed February 22nd 1770, and carries partly worn lines about independence and a 1876 date.Photograph

Secondary source

Boston Massacre Victims Grave

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