An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th, 1775

An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th, 1775

Bernard Romans

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rare early American print depicts a conflict often referred to as the Battle of Bunker Hill. Near the start of the American Revolution, the action took place on the Charlestown Peninsula, north of Boston Harbor and involved 2,400 British troops commanded by Major General Howe ranged against 1,500 Americans of the Continental Army under General Artemas Ward and General Israel Putnam. Here, straight ranks of colonial troops in blue face the advancing red-coated British, with a glimpse of Boston shown at right and Charlestown burning at left.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th, 1775An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th, 1775An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th, 1775An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th, 1775An Exact View of the Late Battle at Charlestown, June 17th, 1775

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.