The Battle at Bunker's Hill, Near Boston
Johann Gotthard von Müller, German, 1747 - 1830
after John Trumbull, American, 1756 - 1843
1798
Engraving, copper on wove paper
Plate: 22 13/16 × 31 11/16 in. (58 × 80.5 cm)
Sheet: 27 3/16 × 35 13/16 in. (69 × 91 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Helena Mein Wade in memory of her husband, Alfred Byers Wade
PR.950.21.28
Geography
Place Made: Germany, Europe
Period
1600-1800
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Inscribed in plate, lower left: Painted by John Trumbull Esqr; center: The Battle at Bunker's Hill, near Boston / June 17th, 1775 / London, Published March 1798 by A.C. de Poggi No. 91 New Bond St.; lower right: Engraved by JG Muller
Label
The Battle of Bunker Hill was a tactical loss for the American Revolutionaries, who gave up ground, but it resulted in the highest number of casualties of British officers of any battle in the American Revolution. Here, mortally wounded Massachusetts Major General Joseph Warren slumps at the center. British Major John Small steps in from the right and prevents another soldier’s bayonet from delivering the fatal blow. However, this painting is fiction. Small did not actually save Warren when he fell on the battlefield. The artist, John Trumbull, manufactured this merciful scene between British and American officers to emphasize how revolutionary politics divided friends.
Among the identifiable officers, Trumbull also included two Black soldiers. The man at the far right is likely Asaba, who was enslaved by the man he stands behind, Lieutenant Thomas Grosvenor of the Connecticut Regiment. Many African American soldiers fought and died in a struggle for independence and freedom that remained unfulfilled.
From the 2025-26 exhibition Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, curated by Michael W. Hartman (Jonathan Little Cohen Curator of American Art), Haely Chang (Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art), Elizabeth Rice Mattison (Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art), Ashley B. Offill (Curator of Collections), and Evonne Fuselier (Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow)
Exhibition History
Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, Harteveldt Family Gallery and Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 18, 2025 - August 8, 2026.
Unlayering Stereotypes: Selections from the Permanent Collection For Teaching Cultural Anthropology, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Anthropology 7, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 24-August 20, 1995.
Provenance
Alfred Byers Wade (1874-1949) Collection; to his wife, Helena Mein Wade (1878-1966), New Canaan, Connecticut, 1949; given to present collection, 1950.
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