(c) 2017 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Paul Revere's Ride

poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Portland, Maine, 1807 - 1882, Cambridge, Massachusetts)

contributor James Thomas Fields (Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1817 - 1881, Boston)

Date1860

Place MadeBoston, Massachusetts, United States, North America

MediumInk on paper

Dimensions22.2 x 18.3 cm (8 3/4 x 7 3/16 in.)

ClassificationsManuscripts

Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Accession numberARC.005208

eMuseum ID719784

Other NumberU3s357

EmbARK ObjectID31130

TMS Source ID14708

Last Updated8/9/24

Status

Not on view

Web CommentaryHenry Wadsworth Longfellow published one of his best known poems “Paul Revere’s Ride” in January 1861. This handwritten manuscript was used for the printings in the Boston Evening Transcript and The Atlantic Monthly, and the edits show the painstaking craftsmanship of the celebrated poet.

BibliographyNotesHenry Wadsworth Longfellow. "Paul Revere's Ride." The Atlantic (January 1861).
Christoph Irmscher, "'Listen and You Shall Hear': The Gardner Museum Autograph of Longfellow's 'Paul Revere's Ride',"" Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 15 April 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/longfellows-paul-reveres-ride

MarksNotesInscribed in pencil (first page, upper left): Hennessy
Inscribed in pencil in James Thomas Fields' hand (second page, lower left): omit
Signed in pen (pasted on ninth page, lower right): Henry W. Longfellow

ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the scholar and critic Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), Cambridge on 13 November 1902 for $1500 for a group of three manuscripts and an accompanying letter (ARC.005208, ARC.001493, ARC.005169, ARC.009209).