The Repeal, or the Funeral of Miss Ame-Stamp

What it is

This is a hand-colored etching titled The Repeal, or the Funeral of Miss Ame-Stamp, dated 1766. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds it as a gift of Walter L. Hildberg, 1923. The print was made by an anonymous British artist in the 18th century. It shows a procession of mourners in 18th-century dress carrying papers past a harbor with ships and a large building. Skulls float in the sky, and a coffin-like figure stands near the left. Banners and signs refer to the "Stamp Act" and to "For America."

Why it matters

The Stamp Act of 1765 placed a tax on printed paper in the British American colonies. Colonists protested it, and Parliament repealed it in 1766. This print turns the repeal into a joke about a dead tax. Patrick Henry's Resolves of 1765 were part of the colonial answer to the same Stamp Act dispute. The print does not show Henry. It shows how people in Britain pictured the quarrel, and it helps students see the argument from the other side.

Look closer

• Who is shown as mourning, and what do the papers they carry suggest about the Stamp Act?
• Why would a satirist use skulls and a funeral to talk about a law being repealed?
• What might this image leave out about the colonists' own arguments?