
View of the Attack on Bunker's Hill, with the Burning of Charles Town, June 17, 1775
John Lodge
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
An aerial view looking up the Charles River, with Boston at left and Charlestown at right. Four British warships in the Harbor land troops and fire on Charlestown. A British battery on Copp's Hill in Boston also fires on Charlestown which is on flames. British troops on the shore make an assault on Bunker's [or Breed's] Hill, with American troops above on the heights. Published to illustrate Barnard's History, [1783?], London: A. Hogg, p. 687.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
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.