Bunkers Hill, or the Blessed Effects of Family Quarrels

Anonymous, British, 18th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small satirical print was likely appeared in a periodical and comments on Boston hostilities that preceded America's Declaration of Independence in 1776. News of the Battle of Bunker Hill reached London on July 25, 1775 and this print must have been produced soon after. Figures representing America and Britannia fight one another as France stabs America from behind and Spain pierces Britannia's shield. British politicians John Stuart, Earl of Bute, Frederick North, Earl of Guilford, and David Murray, Earl of Mansfield, look down on the scene, accompanied by a demons.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art