A New Method of Macarony Making as Practised at Boston

Inscriptions

Inscribed, lower left to right: Copied on stone by D.C. Johnston from a print published in London 1774 Lith of Pendleton Boston 1830

Label

While the threat of British imperialism had faded by 1830, the Revolutionary spirit remained, especially in advance of the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This lithograph updates a satirical print first published in 1774, after American colonists captured the British customs agent John Malcom, covered him in tar and feathers, and forced him to drink tea. The number 45—a reference to an antimonarchical pamphlet published in 1763—and the bow on the men’s hats mark them as patriots. A “macaroni,” referred to in the title, described an overly fashionable man in the 18th century. Here used ironically, the term draws attention to Malcom’s humiliation at the hands of the American colonists.

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

American Intellectual and Cultural History Through the Civil War, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, History 30, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 10-September 6, 1992.

Lower Jewett Corridor, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 23-February 21, 1976.

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.

Provenance

John Wilmerding; sold to present collection, 1974.

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Subjects