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Secondary sourcePainting1781–83

The Honorable Samuel Adams, First Delegate to Congress from Massachusetts

John Norman · 1781–83

An engraved portrait of Samuel Adams, who helped publicize the Boston Massacre in which Attucks was killed.

Samuel Adams publicized the Boston Massacre in which Attucks died, linking this portrait to Attucks's story.

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Engraved print of Samuel Adams in an oval laurel wreath frame, shown in three-quarter view wearing a dark coat and cravat. Below is a pedestal with emblems and the caption naming him as First Delegate to Congress from Massachusetts, with engraver J. Norman.
John Norman, The Honorable Samuel Adams, First Delegate to Congress from Massachusetts, 1781–83. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This is an engraving made between 1781 and 1783 by John Norman, showing Samuel Adams in an oval laurel-wreath frame. It is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Why it matters

Samuel Adams was a leading Massachusetts politician who worked to publicize the Boston Massacre, the event in which Crispus Attucks was killed. This portrait does not show Attucks himself, but it represents one of the people who used the massacre, and the deaths of men like Attucks, to build support for the American cause.

Look closer

  • Why might an engraver choose to show Adams in a formal pose with laurel wreaths and emblems?
  • What does this portrait leave out about the ordinary people, like Attucks, involved in the events Adams publicized?
  • How can a portrait of a famous leader shape how we remember events that also involved less famous people?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Crispus Attucks and Samuel Adams 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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