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Secondary sourcePainting1886

The Stamp Act riots in Boston

1886

An 1886 wood engraving of the 1765 Stamp Act riots in Boston, which ransacked Thomas Hutchinson's mansion. Hutchinson himself is not shown.

Shows the 1765 riots that ransacked Hutchinson's mansion, although he is not depicted; it is a later retelling of his personal ordeal.

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Wood engraving titled The Stamp Act Riots at Boston. A crowd of men with raised sticks and flags surrounds a drummer and a mounted figure amid smoke and burning effigies hanging from a pole and a gallows-like frame. A dog runs in the foreground.
The Stamp Act Riots at Boston, wood engraving, 1886. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

About this source

What it is

This is a wood engraving titled The Stamp Act Riots at Boston, dated 1886. It is a later print of events from 1765, held by the Library of Congress. It shows a crowd of men with raised sticks and flags surrounding a drummer and a mounted figure, amid smoke and burning effigies hanging from a pole and a gallows-like frame. A dog runs in the foreground. The artist is not named in the record.

Why it matters

The Stamp Act riots of 1765 were among the first large protests against British policy in Boston. The mob ransacked the mansion of Thomas Hutchinson, then lieutenant governor, which made him a target of colonial anger. Because this engraving was made more than a century later, it reflects how the event was remembered and retold rather than how it looked at the time.

Look closer

  • What details show that this is a crowd in action, and what might the effigies represent?
  • Why might an engraver in 1886 have chosen to portray this 1765 event this way?
  • Hutchinson is not shown here. What does that absence suggest about whose story this image tells?

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

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